News & Media

Evolving Research (And Researcher)

Ohio Wesleyan Program Helps Student Grow as a Scientist

Name: Nate Dedek ’17

Hometown: Orwell, Ohio

Major: Pre-professional zoology

Minor: Classics

Experience: Summer Science Research Program, zoology research

Dedek is spending 10 weeks working with OWU faculty mentor Dustin Reichard, Ph.D., assistant professor of zoology, examining the potential impact of geography on the short-range and long-range songs of Dark-eyed Juncos, a type of sparrow.

Lessons learned: “We are examining whether there is greater geographic variation in the short-range song (SRS) of Dark-eyed Juncos than in their long-range song (LRS). In other words, we're determining if SRS is more unique than LRS to the different populations of Dark-eyed Juncos. If SRS is, in fact, more unique to each population, then we can assume that it can be used as a reproductive barrier between the populations and those barriers have the potential to start the process of speciation (evolution).

“Dr. Reichard has already recorded songs from every population so my job for the summer is to use a computer program to quantify certain acoustic properties of the songs and use statistical analysis to determine any differences among them.

“We've also been doing a side project where we are assessing the effectiveness of bird boxes (basically bird houses) at blocking out ambient noise. For that, we just take the bird boxes to a quiet field, put an amplitude meter in them, and blast noise at them from a speaker. That's a great way to get out of the lab some days. …

“I learned that research isn’t always as exciting as you might think. It’s a lot of tedious and meticulous work. … Nonetheless, it’s an incredibly rewarding experience, and I learned what it’s really like to be a researcher.

“This experience has tied to my future because I plan on becoming a professor at an upper-level institution, and you know what they say, ‘Publish or perish!’ Given all that I’ve done this summer, I feel prepared to pursue such a career successfully.”

Why I chose Ohio Wesleyan: “I found out about OWU at a college fair during Buckeye Boys State. I visited a couple times and really enjoyed the campus and the atmosphere and how kind everyone was. Then they offered me the biggest financial aid package out of all the schools I was considering, and I was sold after that.”

My plans after graduation: “I’m going to a few conferences this year, and I’m leaning on my networking skills to get me a job coming out of one of those conferences. ... From there, I’ll either go straight into a grad program or I’ll find another research opportunity and take a gap year to gain a little more experience before going back to school.”