Hannah Frank
PhD in Biology (Ecology and Evolution), Postdoc (Asst. Professor, Tulane, starting 2020), Explorer
Website: www.hkfrank.com
Two of my defining characteristics as a child: I loved animals and I loved to talk. True to form, I spent most weekends in high school teaching people about animals as a docent at the Los Angeles Zoo. When I got to Harvard College, having been unwavering in my commitment since age 4 that I would be a veterinarian (except for that week in kindergarten during which I aspired to be a waitress), I decided that I would probably be doing medicine for the rest of my life so why not major in evolutionary biology? There I got my first experiences in field and laboratory-based research. I learned how to catch lizards (still not entirely sure I'm better at it than the average 8 year-old) and discovered how much I loved research. I ended up moving to New Zealand for a year to study tuatara, an ancient reptile that is most closely related to snakes and lizards, and deciding that maybe I should do a PhD in addition to a veterinary medical degree. I had a minor quarter-life crisis that involved a lot of PhD applications, a lot of DVM applications, a lot of DVM-PhD combined degree applications and a lot of conversations with scientists, clinicians, etc. and decided (30 minutes before the deadline) to do my PhD at Stanford in ecology and evolutionary biology. I thought I would never think about medicine again ... and then I did my dissertation research on infections in bats and how they have evolved in response to them. Now I'm in a laboratory in the pathology department trying the "fake it 'til you make it" approach to becoming an immunologist. Except for the time I almost released a bat into the Stanford hospital, I think it's been going generally well. I will spend one more year at Stanford before starting my own lab (!) at Tulane University in New Orleans where I will continue to research the evolution of bat immunity and its ecological correlates. It was a bumpy road -- sometimes really bumpy -- but I'm really glad I ended up where I did, which is ultimately where I started: a kid who really loves to talk about animals.