A life update?

[Narelle]

I wanted to give a small update here about an exciting change on the horizon for me. I know I've talked about this in the past some, but Planet Catfish was absolutely instrumental for me in finding my passion for freshwater fish. I don't think I would be where I'm at today at all if I hadn't found this site years ago when I was trying to ID the little catfish I bought that wasn't what it was sold as.
(A

Pseudomystus siamensis

sold as

Microglanis iheringi

. Now my favorite fish!)

I was accepted to a PhD program for the coming fall! I'm really excited, it's an absolute dream of an opportunity. A better fit in so many ways than I expected to have the luxury to be picky about.

I'm one step closer to becoming an ichthyologist!

It's important to me to share the news here because I really want to express how much I appreciate this website and all of its contributors. I worked hard to get where I'm at, but I was inspired to do so in great part by the wealth of knowledge and quality of discussions here. You're why I got into science! And I wouldn't be pursuing a career doing that without an interest in reading literature sparked by what I was reading here.

Thank you all so much for doing what you do.

[bekateen]

Hi Narelle,

Thanks for sharing such a wonderful update. Great success to you in the future, Dr. Narelle!

Woohoo! Congratulations!

Cheers, Eric

P.s., What school (or do you not want to say yet)?

[Narelle]

Thank you! Still probably a little soon on the "Dr." title, but I'm very much looking forward to earning it.

P.s., What school (or do you not want to say yet)?

Texas A&M! Their Ecology and Evolutionary Biology program.

(A very long time ago I sent a pm to @Silurus and this school (and PI) was among his recommendations for places to try to go for undergrad. I was too late in asking to really utilize this advice for undergrad as a lot of the applications were already closing at the time, but I revisited the it when researching grad schools to apply to so it was still extremely helpful, which I don't think I sufficiently expressed when we originally corresponded. Thank you again for the help, Silurus!)

[bekateen]

Terrific!

Still probably a little soon on the "Dr." title, but I'm very much looking forward to earning it.

Just a matter of time. You can do it.

[MarcW]

Congratulations on getting accepted to the course, and thanks for the update, I remember reading your thread in 2014 asking about further education in this field!

Good luck I hope it goes well and you are able to find a job which you enjoy.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Great news! Congratulations!

[Jools]

What a brilliant thread. Makes it all worthwhile and then some. Thanks for telling us, it means a lot. Please do keep us updated with your progress.

Cheers,

Jools

[Silurus]

Thank you! Still probably a little soon on the "Dr." title, but I'm very much looking forward to earning it.

P.s., What school (or do you not want to say yet)?

Texas A&M! Their Ecology and Evolutionary Biology program.

(A very long time ago I sent a pm to @Silurus and this school (and PI) was among his recommendations for places to try to go for undergrad. I was too late in asking to really utilize this advice for undergrad as a lot of the applications were already closing at the time, but I revisited the it when researching grad schools to apply to so it was still extremely helpful, which I don't think I sufficiently expressed when we originally corresponded. Thank you again for the help, Silurus!)

Kevin your advisor?

[fishguy1978]

Congratulations. Good luck with your studies.

[Narelle]

Thank you all for the encouragement and kind words! I will definitely keep up the updates, Jools.

Kevin your advisor?

Yes! I'm very excited to be working with him.

[Silurus]

You're not working on any projects involving Pseudolaguvia, are you? I am supposed to help out (at Kevin's request) on these.

[Narelle]

We haven’t discussed anything about Pseudolaguvia specifically, but we haven’t talked about specific projects I’d be working on yet. A couple months ago we talked about a lot of exciting potential directions we could go, but nothing definite.

I only just got the news on the admissions decision and we haven’t really had a chance to talk much since then.

[Jools]

I think you also have the record for the longest Bagrid wish-list too - we should have known...

Jools

[racoll]

Congratulations Narelle! Kevin's a great guy. You'll have an awesome time.

PlanetCatfish is the main reason I got into ichthyology, and I think probably the same for a few others too, like Milton.

Jools has a lot to answer for

[Jools]

That's kind, but it's the whole team that has a lot to answer for.

Apart from sitting in a Planet Hollywood restaurant waiting for a burger and thinking, hey, maybe the world needs Planet Catfish, my role has mainly been to field the rotten tomatoes thrown when the internet was adolescent. Being passionate about catfishes made it easy to otherwise build this fantastic repository. Keeping the biotope acceptable for all those that drop by is also fun. I'm happy to stay that our visitors continue to be new and (relatively!) old faces which is also great.

Cheers,

Jools

[Narelle]

Thank you, racoll! That's pretty neat that there have been a few people in this boat. Excited to join the club!

This place is definitely something special, whoever we want to blame for it. I'm very glad I found it when I did!

[Narelle]

I thought I'd tack one more thing on here - I graduated from my undergraduate program this past weekend, and thought you all might appreciate how I decorated my cap.


( It came out much messier than planned, as I was very short on time to put it together and didn't realize some of my paints were overdue for being replaced. Not bad for sure, but my other main hobby is art so this wasn't quite up to par for me. ^^;; But hey, still looks neat! )

[Shane]

I love it!
-Shane

[bekateen]

Spectacular! I bet that mortar board got noticed.

Congratulations!

Cheers, Eric

[Viktor Jarikov]

Thank you for sharing. It's refreshing and pleasant to see!

[GoreBrain]

That's awesome to hear about your exciting update! It's amazing how a single website can have such a significant impact on our lives and passions. Speaking of passions, if you're considering taking your love for freshwater fish to the next level, you might find some helpful resources on veterinary care for aquatic pets at websites like Veterinary Schools U https://www.veterinaryschoolsu.com/. They could offer valuable insights as you dive deeper into this hobby.

[Narelle]

I think I'm overdue for an update to this thread.

Things didn't work out with the lab I started my PhD in. The person I was working with turned out to be a poor fit for me.

For a little while now I've been in another lab, taking a short detour working on Poeciliids. I joined my new lab knowing from the start that my intention was to leave my current institution with a Master's and go elsewhere for a PhD. (No one at this institution except my original advisor has the expertise to advise me in my field.)
My current advisor is fantastic, but we just don't have a good enough research fit for me to stick around for the PhD. I am a systematist, she is a geneticist. Still, I'm glad to have gotten the opportunity to work with her - she is an excellent mentor and has taught me a lot.

I am aiming to defend my MS thesis on my current project this summer, sometime in the next couple of months. (Still lots to do, so the timeline's still a little up in the air. It will be really down to the wire. Switching labs meant starting a new project from scratch on a really tight timeline.)

After I defend here, I'll be starting a new PhD at Louisiana State University in fall. I'll be back on track working on Asian catfishes there!

I wanted to wait to update about this until I had good news, and this is great news!
I'm confident that the lab and advisor at LSU are a much better fit for me. I'm very excited!!

[bekateen]

Congratulations on working it out. Who will be your next advisor?

Cheers Eric

[Narelle]

Congratulations on working it out. Who will be your next advisor?

Cheers Eric

Thanks! I'll be working with Prosanta Chakrabarty.

[bekateen]

Thanks!