Meet Colleen Mayberry... Virus Scientist

JACQUE: ​What is your name?
COLLEEN: My name is Colleen Mayberry

JACQUE: What is the official title of what you do?
COLLEEN: I am a graduate research assistant. I’m working towards my PhD so I spend a lot of time in the lab working on my own projects and also I do some teaching during the semester

JACQUE: What is the layperson description of what you do?
COLLEEN: I study how a virus, which infects the majority of the population, can infect the cells of our body and cause disease

JACQUE: Tell us about your educational path so far.
COLLEN: I took a more nontraditional path to get to where I am. I spent my first two years at a community college because I couldn’t afford to attend a University for the full four years. After the two years I transferred to the University of Maine and completed my bachelors. Initially I thought that I wanted to be an English teacher because I love books and I love to read but then after taking a general course requirement, intro to psych, I thought maybe the mental health profession could be a good fit. I was only in that major for about a year before I took anatomy and physiology for fun as a summer course and I fell in love with it. I got my undergrad in biochemistry with a minor in microbiology, I ended up having to do 5 years in total because I took too many classes just out of interest rather than focusing on courses for my major. I am actually only about 10 credits shy of a second bachelors in Micro for that reason. Then I started grad school. Initially as a masters student, but I switched to the PhD track after two years. And now I having just finished my third year, I passed my qualifying exam last week, and now I only have 2-3 years left before I can graduate with my doctorate in microbiology.

JACQUE: What are you currently working on?
COLLEEN: I’m currently trying to finish up a paper, and get that submitted for publication. A lot of the experiments that we perform in science are control experiments. To make sure that the results we obtain are accurate and to demonstrate that they are working. So I have a few controls that I’m finishing up, they’re not the most exciting thing in the world so I’m looking forward to moving onto something new and exciting ☺

JACQUE: Is there a single reason that you are passionate about your job? Or is it several things?
COLLEEN: I love science. I like to say that I have a thirst for knowledge. It’s exciting to receive a result in the lab and then I have a million more questions following that result. There is always something more to learn and discover and I find that to be extremely engaging for me.

JACQUE: Where are you working now?
COLLEEN: I am working in the Maginnis Lab at the University of Maine

JACQUE: What is your favorite part of your job?
COLLEEN: My favorite part of my job is when you finish an experiment that could have taken upwards of weeks to finish and you can finally look at your result. Most of the time we use fluorescent probes to identify things within cells so our images are always colorful. And truly, when it comes down to it, the data collection is the easy part!

JACQUE: What is your least favorite part of your job?
COLLEEN: My least favorite part of my job is when something doesn’t work. Because you always have to go back and troubleshoot your procedures to figure out where you went wrong. Which isn’t always an easy task. I have one experiment that I have been trying to troubleshoot for about 18 months now. I’ve done it maybe 40-50 times without a successful result. It’s discouraging but I know that when it finally does work, it will feel really really good!

JACQUE: What is your motivation?
COLLEEN: My motivation is to always be the best researcher I can be. To know as much as I can and try to be as independent as possible. When I was in 8th grade one of my teachers told me that I would never amount to much because I didn’t learn the same way that he did. And at that age that can be extremely damaging. So when I need motivation, I think about those words that he said and also where I am now. I have a lot to go, but I know that I am being the best version of myself that I can be.

JACQUE: Who is someone you admire in your field? Why?
COLLEEN: Someone that I admire in my field would most likely be my boss. She was a first generation college student who didn’t have anything handed to her. She finished her PhD at an Ivy league university and now runs her own lab. She is what I consider to be extremely successful. I think that one of the largest barriers in being successful in this field is being a woman. And she has significantly overcome that. 
 When I first met her all that I knew was that she worked with viruses, which I had always found intriguing. I had read a few of her papers and decided that I wanted to join her lab. She was very new here, and only had one other person in her lab and when we met we just ended up chatting for over an hour. She is someone where she doesn’t just care about how much science you accomplish or see us as a means to an end. Her door is always open for anything that we want to talk about and I honestly consider her to be a friend.

JACQUE: ​Who were your biggest supporters?
COLLEEN: Probably my parents. They have always supported me and been there for me, I couldn’t have made it this far without them

JACQUE: What is your cultural background?
COLLEEN: Born and raised in Maine. I don’t consider myself to have a lot of diversity.

JACQUE: Which socioeconomic group did you grow up in? 
COLLEEN: Definitely middle class. My parents worked hard for what they earned. We were able to take vacations but they weren’t frequent.
 
JACQUE: Are you the first in your family to become a scientist?
COLLEEN: Yes and no. One of my great uncles (not by blood) was a chemist but I never met him. So I have a hard time considering that counts, otherwise yes haha

JACQUE: Did you see real life scientists when you were a kid?
COLLEEN: Yes I did! They would come to my middle school and do ‘science’ experiments with us, cornstarch and water, dry ice, etc. It was always really exciting haha

JACQUE: Were many people in your family educated with college degrees?
COLLEEN: Only a few. My grandparents were dairy farmers. My mom is a nurse, my dad an electrician, my sister got her degree in elementary education before deciding she didn’t like teaching, she now works for a brewery.

JACQUE: Did you have other friends or peers to talk to about science?
COLLEEN: Yes I do, I have formed really good friendships with the other people in the lab, there are 5 grad students now and just about as many undergrads, we all share an office space so we spend a lot of time together during the day haha

JACQUE: Did you have a teacher in middle or high school that saw something extra in you?
COLLEEN: Not really. I never did well in middle school or high school. I guess I didn’t think that those grades mattered. My parents have said now in retrospect that they considered that I might not end up going to college. And for whatever reason some switch flicked and I got a 4.0 my first semester. It’s an entirely different learning environment 

JACQUE: How did you handle situations when people underestimated you?
COLLEEN: I am someone who just takes criticism that’s not entirely constructive. I really don’t like confrontation so my way of handling the situation is to prove them wrong

JACQUE: Can you give advice on what NOT to do when handling the stress of college and the job?
COLLEEN: Don’t give up. Don’t think that you have to know every little detail to be successful. It’s okay to feel stressed and exhausted, everyone else is too. Don’t alienate yourself. Talk to someone. 

OJACQUE: ​What is your home life like?
COLLEEN: My home is my apartment. I have a one bedroom apartment about 20 minutes from campus, and then I have my family home which is about an hour from here.

JACQUE: Do you have any pets?
COLLEEN: Yes I do! I have one cat, his name is Opie, he’s an orange fluffball with a huge personality. I honestly couldn’t live by myself without him haha

JACQUE: What are the big awards given for your job?
COLLEEN: So beyond funding awards, last year I won an award for being the best graduate teaching assistant in our department, it’s awesome to see that the work that I put in is rewarding for the other students. Otherwise there are individual recognition awards like that one

JACQUE: What kind of gear do you use to do your job?
COLLEEN: I use a lab coat when I’m working with virus, but otherwise I have to wear gloves and use hoods that prevent air exchange to protect myself from whatever chemicals or viruses, bacteria that I am working with

JACQUE: Do you have a favorite tool that works as a lucky charm? (favorite book, shovel, piece of clothing, etc.)
COLLEEN: This is kind of strange, but I have a beaker mug that’s full of corks. In our lab we celebrate accomplishments like publications or passing the qualifying exam, etc. with champagne. And I keep all the corks from those bottles and they are in a mug that’s shaped like a beaker on my windowsill.

JACQUE: Please tell us about the thing you are most proud of accomplishing so far.
COLLEEN: Passing my qualifying exam. Proving to the university and people that took a chance on me by accepting me that I can do this, and that their efforts are not wasted

JACQUE: Can you tell us about a situation, whether in school or at work, that you could have handled better after thinking about it? What would you have done differently?
COLLEEN: Honestly not that I can think of. Just always try and be considerate to others and don’t be too judgmental. You never know how much time someone put into something so always be constructive in your feedback

JACQUE: Were there times you wanted to give up? How did you push through?
COLLEEN: Yes and no. Even when I finished my bachelors I told myself that I wasn’t done yet. That I wanted to keep going. I love school now and I’m not ready to give it up. So I just have never let me self want to quit.

JACQUE: What coping mechanisms do you have that help you handle the stress of your job?
COLLEEN: We have a lot of stress balls, and by that I mean a ton haha but being right in the middle of campus, it’s great to just go and take a walk, get some distance from whatever it is.

JACQUE: ​Can you give us a broad picture of how your time is spent at work?
COLLEEN: So my typical day at work is starting an experiment in the morning, and then I generally read some papers during incubations, and then in the afternoon I finish some experiments, read some more papers, and that’s generally it for the day! It’s very laid back and generally moves at my own pace

JACQUE: If money were no issue, what project would u do?
COLLEEN: I would keep doing this. But with better equipment ;)

JACQUE: How important is getting grant money?
COLLEEN: At the university level it’s everything. You only are what you’ve published in the last 5 years and to publish you need to demonstrate to funding agencies that you can be productive. And that’s not always easy when the science doesn’t go your way. There is a lot of pressure.

JACQUE: Can you give us a basic rundown of how a project is conducted? (From the idea to the end)
COLLEEN: Well, from the idea, you order the necessary reagents, and then you read papers where someone else practiced a similar technique or idea and generate your protocol for the experiment and hopefully when you do it, it’ll work! Otherwise you may need to finetune some things, concentrations, incubation times, etc.
 
JACQUE: Can you give us an example of handling a bad situation well?
COLLEEN: One semester when I was teaching one student had a huge outburst in the middle of class, straight out yelling at another student. Thankfully when asked to step into the hall they did so, I can’t imagine what could have happened if the situation wasn’t diffused.

JACQUE: Can you give us an example of a time that you were treated in a sexist way in your job?
I have been called ‘sweetheart’ a few times but nothing too significant I don’t think. My boss tries really hard to make sure that this is an equal and supportive environment.

​JACQUE: A question from 11-year-old Sarah- Do you get paid for being a scientist? In other words, how do you get paid for what you do? (If you are a student and working, tell us about that)
COLLEEN: Yes I do get paid for being a scientist. I don’t make a ton right now because I am still in school but I get paid to essentially go to school. I have free tuition and I get a paycheck every month in exchange for working in the lab and doing some teaching. I think it’s a pretty fair trade, I don’t have to get a second job so I can focus on my school work
 
JACQUE: What was your lowest point?
COLLEEN: My lowest point was probably when I was applying to grad school and I was getting endless rejection letters. I actually even received two from one university, the second one came about a month after the first. Almost like they were trying to remind me that I really wasn’t going there haha. U Maine was the only acceptance that I received. But I honestly don’t mind that now, all you need is one!
 
JACQUE: What are the parts about being a scientist that you didn’t expect?
COLLEEN: I honestly didn’t expect to be good at it. After being told repeatedly that you’d fail at something, when you can actually do it, it’s exciting.
 
JACQUE: What do you find MOST frustrating about your work?
COLLEEN: What I find most frustrating is repeating the same thing over and over and hoping for a different result. It’s so challenging and a lot of the time I want to just say, ‘okay, I’m done with this’ and move onto something else but science doesn’t work like that.

JACQUE: What is your highest point so far?
COLLEEN: My highest point was seeing my name in print. I put a lot of work into that publication and it really was rewarding to see that people could read it and hopefully learn something from it.

JACQUE: What is your social life like?
COLLEEN: It’s not huge. But that could be because I consider myself to be pretty introverted. But I usually leave the lab around 5 and I have my weekends mostly free too, so I definitely have the time to meet a friend for dinner or go kayaking on the weekends, etc

JACQUE: ​What worries you? Keeps you up at night?
COLLEEN: I find that I have a lot of anxiety. Sometimes I’ll think of an experiment that I forgot to finish in the middle of the night or I will have stress dreams where things are just going wrong. And there isn’t much that I can do about them unfortunately.

JACQUE: What advice would you give to a girl coming into a STEM field?
COLLEEN: Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something. And don’t let people walk on you.

JACQUE: What advice would you give to parents to help prepare their child to go into the STEM field?
COLLEEN: Don’t discourage science. That is a big area of the news right now. 
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JACQUE: Do you have a website we can check out?
COLLEEN: We have a lab website! It can be found through the umaine site. Just look for maginnis lab!

 I would love to thank Colleen Mayberry for being on this blog! Her knowledge and experience are valuable addition to Fantastic Women in Science!!