The morning I interviewed Jenny VanWyk was a bright one. Most of the surfaces in her office were home to potted plants that soaked in the extra sunlight and made the room feel cozy and welcoming as we sat down to talk.
Jenny’s official title is the Assistant Professor of Ecology and Global Change, which is just expansive enough to accommodate her many interests and fields of research. This semester, she’s teaching Disease Ecology, an introductory course, and Experiments in Plant Ecology, which includes both lecture and lab sessions.
“I think it’s going well,” Jenny says when I ask her about her classes. “Disease Ecology is pretty challenging and it’s a 100 level course, but it’s Hampshire.” She expresses her admiration for Hampshire’s students taking the initiative to fill in the knowledge gaps for such a difficult class.
Jenny describes Disease Ecology in a nutshell: the study of how the environment shapes disease transmission. I ask Jenny to explain a little further, as I am not very science-minded.
As an example, Jenny asks me if I’ve seen how many acorns have been on the ground lately. She says that this is a sign of an oak mast year. “We don’t have a full understanding of what triggers mast years,” Jenny says. She explains how the plethora of acorns for mice and deer to feed on result in an uptick of Lyme disease, as those animals play host to ticks.
Plentiful acorns as a sign of incoming peaks in Lyme is just one example of the interesting topics she covers in Disease Ecology. Jenny is passionate about teaching a concept she says is called One Health. “Human health is so tied to animal health, agriculture… you can’t parse it out.”
“Human health is so tied to animal health, agriculture … you can’t parse it out.”
Jennifer VanWyk, Assistant Professor of Ecology and Global Change
One of her most recent research papers investigates bee diseases and pathologies and how they spread. The article, published in Ecology, is titled Big bees spread disease: body size mediates transmission of a bumble bee pathogen—check it out for yourself! It’s no surprise that Jenny’s favorite animal is bees—bumblebees, to be more specific.
“Hopefully I’ll have multiple hives of bumblebees on campus as early as February,” Jenny shares excitedly. They will be located in the basement of the Cole Science Center, where they can stay in a warm and regulated environment all year. She’ll be studying the bees in relation to strawberry pollination for her next research project.
Another thing that Jenny is passionate about teaching is effective scientific communication. “There’s a lot of distrust of science in this country right now,” Jenny states. “In order to do science, you have to convince people that your science is worth funding.” The final project for the students in her Plant Ecology class is writing a grant proposal, their research distilled into a concise two pages. It’s a hard thing to do, but Jenny knows firsthand how hard it is to receive scientific grants.
One of the grants she wants STEM students to know about is given out by the National Science Foundation—the Graduate Research Fellowship Program, which you can apply for even before starting your experiment. It pays for three years of graduate school, including tuition, health insurance, and stipends. Acceptance into the GRFP is very selective, but in Jenny’s words, if you have it, “I’m not saying you can get in anywhere… but kind of.”
To finish up our interview, I ask Jenny what she’s involved with outside of school and classes. She’s working on community-based projects like the Greenwich food forest and carbon sequestration—which any student is welcome to come talk to her about!
Outside of teaching, Jenny really enjoys gardening, and often brings food from her home garden to her office to give away. She also cans tomatoes, raises livestock like pigs and chickens, and is an avid cross-country skier.
My interview with Jenny enlightened me to a dynamic and passionate professor that the science department at Hampshire is lucky to have. Keep an eye out for more issues of the Leapfrog as I talk to more new faculty this year, and look forward to Jenny’s classes in the spring!
REVIEWED BY: Blaise Paine, Verne Gulley, Kenzie Doherty
