Patricia Silva

From EESwiki

•Degree: BSc. Biology Major

•Study focus: Evolutionary Ecology with Daphnia as model organism (Predator-prey interaction and inducible defences)

•Personal interests: Music (Jazz, Rock, Folk), Concerts, Play Saxofon and Drum, Literature (Mostly poetry), Visual Arts, Scientific Literature.

Personal Statement

My interest in science dates back to my years in high school, where I excelled in biology, chemistry, and math. Because of that it seemed logical to study something related with sciences. In the other hand since I was a child I started to ask why and how to everything and I became very interested in answering my own questions. I could not simply believe something rather, I had to understand them in a logical way. So I made a two years general sciences career in which I met the right people and I understood that my questions and the answers of my questions were always in relation with biology and mostly with evolution. I felt at home and I started serious studies in Biology sciences.

I took many biology courses, all of which solidified my intense interest in an evolutionary way to explain the living world. I've also had the opportunity to be part of a laboratory of Limnology in which the lake was a model of study while ideas were evolution. This opportunity was voluntary because in my career it is not obligatory to do laboratory work. In the lab I met a lot of special people and it was a place where the flux of ideas was very high, the experimental work was a pleasure and where I knew what the scientific imagination is "If you can imagine it could happen". So every try to explain a process was something inherent to every member of that laboratory because comes out from our imaginations. I realized that the things that I was doing was right because it was enjoyable, enlightening and everything just flew.

In the lab I worked with Daphnia. I wanted and I want to understand how all the possible interactions of this organism can act as an evolutionary force modeling the behavior, the life history traits and the morphology of it, and after that understand the implies of this in a higher level (communities, ecosystems). And if I can know this model very deeply I could find maybe some patterns that could be used in some other organism and I could think in general ideas and theories.

Now I´m finishing my career in Chile and I decided to come to another country because I think that in the scientific world is very important to share, communicate and discuss the ideas with different points of view. So if I study outside my country I will know these other points of view and the other scientist will know my points of view and together we will increase the general thinking of evolution. I think that LMU is the perfect place to do this because they have a long tradition working in evolution, ecology and systematic.

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