Katie Westby
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
“I think I was kind of a closeted biologist my whole life. I never realized how much I was into it.”
Until Katie took a college course on parasites and infectious diseases, her love for biology remained latent. Once she started learning about the vast, tiny world of diseases, she was hooked. However, it took her a few years to realize she wanted to work directly with the organisms themselves.
“It was during my master’s in public health that I thought ‘No, I actually want to be playing with the insects and the pathogens themselves.’ Once I started working hands-on with mosquitoes I was like, ‘Yeah, this is it. This is what I want to do.”
Growing up in Seattle nurtured a love of nature in Katie. She did a thesis on the lack of mosquitoes and ticks in the Pacific Northwest based on old records. Now here at Tyson she gets to study as many of the critters as she wants.
“My first field season here at Tyson was in 2012. I did my PhD in Illinois and we would drive out here to do field research. So I already knew how great this space was before I started working full time here. I mean, they let us breed all the millions of mosquitoes we wanted in the woods. Not many places would let you do that. It’s all pretty great here. But it’s just the friendships that make it what it is.”
Is there anything that you would want to tell the public about the work that you do?
“Just how interesting mosquitoes are is lost on people. Most people don’t even know there’s more than one kind! But also I would tell people to not be afraid of scientists. We’re not trying to push our agenda on them. We’re just not scary.”