Assistant Professor Holly Kindsvater Role model for inclusive teaching and research
Holly Kindsvaters research site has a unique page that explains the lab philosophy. Each person’s success in science is different. Each person must determine what success means to them, and then support one another in achieving that goal.
Kindsvater encourages students to think about how faculty and students can collaborate in conservation science.
Kindsvater, an assistant professor at the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, said that conservation is about being at one with nature, no matter what Thoreau was doing at Walden or John Muir hiking through the Sierras. This is great if you’re into the outdoors, but it’s not the only way to experience it. Some students might not feel at home in this field.
Kindsvater stated that her lab is an inclusive environment where academic achievements are matched by the well-being and success of students.
She said that I have high standards and high expectations for my students. We will be doing the best science we can. However, I believe that students who are excited about their work and feel empowered to achieve their academic goals will do better research.
Hailey Conrad, a Masters student, said that Kindsvaters lab work was an unforgettable experience during her time at Virginia Tech.
Conrad, who is studying reproduction data for summer flounder, said that Dr. Kindsvater really thinks about her students’ interests and goals and tries to design projects that help them achieve their goals. I enjoy working with her because she is good at getting to know people, regardless of where they are at in their evolution as researchers.
Kindsvaters research requires a unique combination of areas of expertise. Kindsvaters research, which is based on a background as a marine biologist focusing on fisheries management/conservation, focuses on the impact of evolutionary histories on a species’ ability to adapt to changing environments.
I am a fisheries biologist and approach questions about fisheries management or species conservation from the angle I understand the unique biology and evolutionary history of a species. This allows the species to be either resilient to overfishing and climate change or extra-sensitive to being endangered.
Kindsvater holds a doctorate from Yale in ecology and evolutionary Biology. Although it seems odd to study marine fishes in the Appalachian Mountains, Kindsvater has learned to adapt to the environment.
She said that a lot of my work involves analysis of data sets and modelling techniques in addition to fieldwork. Although I couldn’t predict it, I was able to model the underlying fundamentals that affect population dynamics using theory as well as data that I already had.
Kindsvaters most recent research focuses on how social interactions between males, females, and spawning can influence population dynamics. She has studied the behavior and traits of salmon, swordtails, darters, and wrasse in order to develop ecological models of mating behaviours.
She noted that my skills are very transferable to freshwater systems after I came to Virginia Tech. I’m now trying to apply my approach for species that arent fished but are of concern. My lab currently has people studying salamander populations using the same framework that I use to understand trends for fish species.