Five Questions with Luiza Maria Teophilo Aparecido
1. Tell us about yourself.
I’m Brazilian and I’ve always been interested in plants, since I was, like, 2 years old. My dad was a professor in Brazil at the State University of Sao Paulo (UNESP) – he just retired -- and he’s a mechanical engineer. Even though he worked with machines, he was always into nature, so I had a lot of nature growing up. So I think combining his academic life with this nature hobby, when I got to the point that I had to choose a career, in 7th grade I decided I wanted to be a forester. So that’s how everything started. I had a big love for trees, and I did all my studies in trees. I started my research in Brazil – the forestry program has five years -- so by my third year I was doing graduate level research in plant growth and mathematical modeling of tree growth, so it was an easy path for me to go on to a Master’s.
I did my Master’s in the Brazilian Amazon (ie., Brazilian Institute of Amazonian Research – INPA), focusing on Amazonian trees and wood anatomy traits, and by chance, somebody advised me to apply for a Ph.D. assistantship at Texas A&M University, which would focus on tropical ecohydrology. I didn’t think I would get in, and it was the only Ph.D. program I applied for. I didn’t understand why they would want this Brazilian girl to go to the U.S., but I was like, you know, I’m going to try it out. And they believed in me and I was accepted right after defending my Master’s thesis.
I did my Ph.D. in Ecosystem Science and Management, with some work in Costa Rica focusing on tropical ecohydrology, and then some oak/pine savannah eco-physiology work in Texas. When Dr. Blonder posted his postdoc opening, I thought it fit nicely with what I saw myself doing with my life: continuing with tropical ecophysiology but also expanding it in a community level type of work. And I couldn’t be happier.
2. How did you wind up at ASU?
It was a pretty lengthy interview process with Dr. Blonder, who’s an assistant professor. I wasn’t even sure, because when I went to Texas, people were, like, “you’re going to do tree work in Texas?” And then, I got the offer to come to ASU and people said, “You’re going to work on trees in the desert?” And I was, like, “I don’t know!” I knew I was hired to do the tropical side of the job that we are carrying out this year in Panama and Ecuador. We did some trial runs in the desert, and I think the best thing I did was come to ASU because I’m pretty much in love with the desert at this point. There’s so much to research on desert plants that people should think about and acknowledge more when discussing plant communities and their function. Although ASU is not really known for their plant ecology work, in general, like U of A or NAU, I feel that it is really great that Ben [Blonder] and myself and the lab are here to try to show people that you can do really interesting work being in a desert, being in Phoenix. I only looked at postdoc opportunities that were really fitting to my personality… folks that were in hydrology and eco-physiology and one of them was Ben’s, and here I am.
3. What’s your favorite part of your work?
The reason I went into research is that I have always had a curious mind. Even as a kid, I’ve always been very curious, and I just love answering questions that other people don’t seek to answer, and gathering data that other people don’t want to gather. So doing field work in the desert or in the tropics, people always think, “oh, that sounds cool, but isn’t that miserable?” And most times I would say yes, it might be a little bit. But at the same time it so gratifying, when you collect the data, you did all that hard work, and then conduct the data analysis and actually answer questions… All the sweat and tears – well not too many tears – but all that sweat in the field, it really is so gratifying. You’re analyzing the data, and you start to read literature, and you start having other questions about other topics that triggers so many other interests. It’s a cycle, I think that’s the beauty of doing research.
When I came to ASU and started working in the desert, it brought up a bunch of other questions. I did a lot of work at the Desert Botanical Garden, and it was so great that we could get so many species and get so much data in one location and so close to ASU. I think, overall, getting so much access to biodiversity and being open to going to the field and getting data is just the best part of all of this.
I’m mentoring three students right now and one of them told me they were worried about going into ecology or conservation because they didn’t think they could get enough research money for it. I told this student, you can always think about the money but sometimes money is not enough if you aren’t happy with what you are doing. My advice was to go with what gut says. You may be ok with having a mediocre job but earning well, but I think I rather get paid mediocre but actually really do what I love, I think it’s worth it. I mean, I’m away from home, but I know that I can do great science by being in the U.S., and I have more access doing tropical work than I do in Brazil. .
4. What is your dream job?
Obviously, I really do want to pursue the university professor career path, to the point that I can focus on more research, and less of the lecturing. I know lecturing is also a part of it, especially in liberal arts schools, which are more teaching than researching. I really want to continue as a researcher, as a professor or as a government agency researcher, if they could open it up for non-citizens, but they sometimes do, so you never know.
But there’s something else that caught my eye at a workshop in Ohio, they have an arboretum there, and the person that was hosting us was talking about how she got into the job there. She explained to us that she has the whole arboretum to do research, and she also gets to do some extension work, like talking to donors and talking to kids that visit about how important the environment is, and why you should have arboretums and why you should have gardens… that would be a fantastic job! But I realize those kinds of jobs don’t come that easy. So for now, I’m focused on my research and my postdoc position, and becoming a professor eventually.
5. Where is your favorite place in the world to visit, and where in the world would you like to go next?
I have to say, my time in Costa Rica was really fantastic. For my Ph.D. I went to Costa Rica ten times. We didn’t have enough time to go to the beach when we were there -- we did the work in the mountains! I’ve always loved nature and care for the environment of the tropics, and Costa Rica is the ideal place to see a little bit of everything and get so much biodiversity. Great people. Great food. So every time I talk to people about where to go, I tell them to go to Costa Rica. I’m getting ready to go to Panama now, so I’ll have to see and weigh the differences, but Costa Rica is fantastic. I’ve been up and down the Americas but I’ve never been to Europe, so I think that would definitely be my next stop.
Bonus question: Is there anything else you think I should ask you?
Yeah, I think you might ask what it is that I like about ASU in general. Although I still feel a little dislocated at SOLS because it’s so big and so overwhelming, I know you can’t know everybody… but at the postdoc level and the grad student level, we have a really great lab dynamic. We’ve been interacting with other labs at SOLS and even though we are only a year old, we’ve just hit it off as a group and with everybody else. And I really like the postdoc gatherings, because most of my best friends that I have now, we all met at one of the first postdoc gatherings. So now we have our own postdoc thing that we see each other every week, at least once.
So I really have to take my hat off [to ASU], because I had always heard that postdocs are loners, they work independently, they’re kind of selfish because the only want to get that tenure position. But at ASU, I still feel pretty good. I don’t feel like an “old-timer.” I really feel welcome. So having a great research plan, a great P.I., getting good infrastructure from ASU, and being in the desert, I really have to say that the whole community at the postdoc level, and the work with the lab and other labs in ecology has been really great.
To learn more about Luiza and Dr. Bonder’s work, check out their article in ASU Now: “From a single leaf to a sea of green: The predictive power of leaves for forest ecology.”