Research for Community Benefit and Fundamental Understanding
In conversations with colleagues, there are two statements I have heard, which I have subsequently adopted as mottos:
Together, these describe my interest in projects that both matter to people beyond myself and increase science's fundamental understanding of the ecological world. Rather than subscribing to a "basic" vs. "applied" science dichotomy, I aspire to do research that falls into Pasteur's Quandrant that considers both the final use of the research question and the potential contribution to fundamental understanding. |