Meet Cat Stevens

Meet Cat Stevens

What is your job title?

Post-doctoral fellow at Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada, and Visiting scientist at NIWA, Wellington.

What do you study and why is it important?

I study marine food webs. This has usually meant pelagic copepods, particularly Arctic ones, but during my post-doc I’ve been looking at hydrothermal vent communities. Who-eats-who is a strong ordering process in food webs, so the work is important in understanding structure and energy flow in marine ecosystems. In terms of the vent work, which is very much in its infancy compared to other fields, there is a primary need to simply know what’s there and how the organisms are meeting their needs. I use fatty acid biomarkers to help answer these questions; such tools are particularly useful in extreme environments where onsite experimentation is logistically problematic.

What will you be doing on the Rumble III voyage?

I plan to collect copepods and sort them by species and developmental stage for subsequent analysis of fatty acid biomarkers.

Where were you educated?

On the east coast of Canada. I did my BSc at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, my MSc at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, and my PhD at Memorial University in Newfoundland.

How did you become interested in the ocean?

It was on a very serendipitous trip to a salmon farm in New Brunswick. I remember being impressed with all the scientists working on getting the diet right for the fish and tweaking the growing conditions. The practical side appealed to me. Then, in the marine ecology courses I subsequently took, I became hooked on the messy, disordered side. My first look at diatoms under a microscope was pretty much the end of a career in anything else.

Do you get seasick?

Yes, I can get quite seasick! Usually it goes away, or dulls in intensity, after a couple days. Although even with my sealegs, I won’t feel great if a storm blows through. During a nasty gale in the North Atlantic, after about a week of being out, I watched my face literally turn green. Being on deck helps a lot, with lots of wind in my face, ginger candies and other yummy-tasting things while I’m working, and crackers during the early, vomiting stage.

What do you enjoy about your work?

I love the sense of discovery and of following an idea all the way through to a thesis, conference, or publication. The variety in research keeps me always interested and entertained. I love being at sea and looking at freshly-caught plankton under a microscope. I could do that for hours! Also, being around other like-minded nerds is a lot of fun and makes for a great working environment.

What are some of the challenges that you face?

So far, the challenge has mostly been trying to match what I want to study with the sorts of projects that will result in funding. At my stage in the game, competition and getting involved in good ventures are very real issues. So is finding a permanent position! Also, I think it’s important to learn to balance your professional life with other things so you don’t become a workaholic.

What have you learned/discovered? What do you hope to learn?

I’ve learned lots of specific things about copepods, but I think what I’ve learned about the social aspects of research are more important. For example how to get along with everyone on an overcrowded icebreaker and still get what you want data-wise. And learning how to communicate well has definitely arisen from the type of work I do. I hope to learn how to enjoy my job on a day-to-day basis and not let stress take over. There will always be stress, so learning to let it go is important.

How do you spend your spare time?

In the great outdoors with my hubby, hiking, camping, canoeing, and admiring and photographing plants and animals. I also enjoy many hermetic, sedentary activities, probably related to the long, bitter Canadian winter (snow sports are for people who like cold, wet feet and danger!). I love reading, knitting, sewing, cooking, and watching movies. And of course travelling and spending time with friends and my now faraway family.