Tell us a little about yourself. Hey. It’s been a while since my last post here. Many things have changed since then. I’m a girl now, that’s a pretty big change. My name is Valor now, and I think that’s a good thing to focus on here. I chose my new first and middle names, Valor and Nikesha respectively, for different reasons. Valor means exactly what it sounds like; courage to do what is right, which is something I’ve wanted to embody since I was young. Nikesha is a name derived from the name of the Greek goddess Nike, but it’s also a name I pulled from one of my favorite songs, America by Sammus, and gave to a character I wrote, which was basically just a passion project to explore where my mind was at the time of writing her. It means victory, and it reflects all the thoughts and personal effects I put into writing that character that are largely my own and informed by my experiences, so it felt only natural that I make that apart of my name. But outside of that, to tell a bit more about myself, I am a nerd who loves to write all kinds of things, from novels to poems, listen to hip-hop music of all kinds, play video games, and watch anime (most recently Bocchi the Rock).
What kind of scientist are you and what do you do? I’m a vertebrate paleontologist (a deep and heartfelt apology to all invertebrate paleontologists) studying comparative dire wolf and grey wolf paleoecology using stable isotopes. The samples I work on come from Rancho La Brea in Los Angeles, CA. Currently, I’m using carbon isotopes to examine these canids’ dietary habits and how they fluctuated with climate. I will be moving onto nitrogen isotopes in the very near future to expand the image of their diets with more precise trophic data. From there, I will be performing radiocarbon dating and strontium analysis, to see where in space and when in time sampled dire and grey wolves existed. I’ll also be creating a strontium map of the LA basin as part of this. This will be done to gain more holistic insight into the lives of these organisms, and to see if dire wolves, like modern grey wolves, travelled great distances, possibly to track migrating prey animals.
What is your favorite part about being a scientist, and how did you get interested in science? My favorite part about being a scientist is the joy of teaching it to other people. Being a teaching assistant, I have taught and will continue to teach undergraduate courses about topics such as introductory biology and geology, and I love watching my students come to understand things more clearly and ask questions that evolve over time to be more and more refined, showing a mastery of the material. It’s also just as nice to be taught things by my students. Details about their interests, forays they’ve made into the working and scientific world, and their insights about politics, diversity, and the world around them. It’s amazing to see, and it makes me feel confident in future generations, which makes it frustrating to see people older than me discrediting and doubting the intelligence and work ethics of younger generations. I got into science from a young age after reading a book about dinosaurs in third grade. I was hooked ever since, which is why I find it so important to foster an interest in science in people of any age and to have patience with people when they stumble over difficult words and concepts.
How does your work contribute to the betterment of society in general? My scientific work serves modern conservationists and paleontologists studying ancient systems. A strontium map is helpful for people who want to study it in the future, and a comparative study of dire wolves and grey wolves can help people who want to study the past in further detail as well as those who study grey wolves today, which are under threat by human land encroachment and changing ecosystem dynamics. But I also do work on improving diversity, equity, and inclusion in the sciences and the world around me. From large, concerted efforts like protests, to smaller, personal things like mentoring diverse undergraduates and helping them get research experience alongside someone who resembles them and can help them navigate certain issues, I do my best to make sure people looking to enter the scientific community can do so freely, without fear of discrimination or judgment.
What advice do you have for up-and-coming scientists? Don’t let anybody tell you that you aren’t good enough, or that you cannot do what you want to do for any reason. If you feel that you can do something and that you want to do it, that’s all that matters. Do what you can to make that happen. Sometimes, detractors will try to make you feel inferior; like you lack the skillset necessary to become what you want to be or like you would be happier elsewhere. The person acting most commonly and most strongly in your best interest is yourself, so you should be the final authority on any decision you decide to make. And many times, people who tell you these negative things simply doubt you, and this can be for many reasons. But there is great satisfaction in proving naysayers wrong.