Katherine Poulos ’17

Overview

Graduate Research Assistant, Cornell University, Cornell AgriTech
Geneva, NY

• BA, Biology, Vassar College
• MA, Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, Columbia University
• Pending Doctorate, Entomology, Cornell University

Katherine Poulos (she/her) is a PhD student in the Entomology Department at Cornell University. She studies an agricultural insect pest called onion thrips via field and laboratory experiments, with the goal of improving pest management. Broadly, her research areas are insect and landscape ecology and evaluating insecticide resistance. She also works with New York onion growers to implement sustainable pest control strategies. Previously, she obtained her MA in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology from Columbia University, where she researched the spotted lanternfly, an introduced insect, using photos posted by community scientists on the website iNaturalist. The work is published in the Journal of Agricultural and Urban Entomology. Her first job out of college was working as a technician at the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, where she worked with growers for the first time, cementing her interest in helping maintain the livelihoods of growers while reducing pesticides in the environment. At Vassar, her favorite academic experience was conducting independent research in the Biology Department. The opportunity to learn from expert faculty on how to craft an experiment from start to finish was invaluable.

Advice to Students:

You don’t need to be the most outgoing person to be successful. Maintaining a few quality relationships while working hard can make a huge difference in your career. If you want to conduct applied research, talk to people on the ground experiencing the issues you’re trying to solve firsthand (i.e., farmers). Researchers bring scientific expertise while people on the ground have special and intimate knowledge that can lead to experiments that yield impactful results. I highly recommend conducting independent research [for a] thesis, even though it may be optional. It is a wonderful way to study something that is important to you while building skills in experimental design and analysis that you will surely use in graduate school.