Kristen Riedinger

Undergraduate Fellow

How has your time at Tyson been?

“I've definitely been enjoying it. It does get a little bit tedious on some of the days when you've got a lot of new stems, but what keeps me going is the people. When we get a little bogged down, we call out things in funny voices. We make each other laugh or make weird jokes about the trees or the six letter code. It keeps the spirits up, and makes the days not feel as long and drawn out.”

What do you do out here to stay motivated?

“I think about how this is part of a whole big network that's going to answer a lot of big questions. So this one stem that I'm measuring is part of a larger network, so it's about more than just one stem.”

If you choose to go the research route, would you prefer that your research have large-scale implications?

“It would be cool to make a difference on a wide scale or at least be a small part of that. I think it's really cool to be a part of big things that answer big questions and actually bring something into that pool of scientific knowledge that is not revolutionary, but that impacts a lot of people in a positive way.”

Kristen worked with Jonathan Myers' Forest Biodiversity team during summer 2018. Learn more about their long-term temperate forest research here and their prescribed fire experiment here.