Quantitative & Systems Biology graduate student Portia Mira had a busy spring.
Early in the year, Mira was awarded the School of Natural Sciences Dean’s Distinguished Scholar Fellowship. The fellowship allowed her to continue her research and prepare for her qualifying exams in May without an additional teaching load for the semester.
In March, Mira competed in UC Merced’s first-ever GradSLAM! research competition. Along with 31 of her peers, she presented her research to non-specialist judges in just three minutes. She was named one of 10 finalists in the competition, and went on to compete in the GradSLAM! finals on April 7.
Just a few days after the GradSLAM! qualifying rounds, Mira was also chosen as the School of Natural Sciences’ winner for the 2015 Graduate Student Poster Competition during Research Week — her second win in as many years.
And along with her advisor, Professor Miriam Barlow, Mira is studying the evolution of bacterial resistance to antibiotics.
“New antibiotics are slow to be released, and bacteria is constantly evolving to resist new drugs anyway,” Mira said. “Instead, we have created a mathematical model that helps us predict our ability to fight that resistance through the cycling of various existing antibiotics. With this idea, we may eventually be able to use the current antibiotics we have at hand to reverse resistance, rather than fighting it.”
School of Natural Sciences Dean Juan Meza, Mira’s mentor, encouraged her to apply for graduate school as she was completing her undergraduate degree in 2013. From there, everything seemed to fall into place, and it was clear that continuing at UC Merced was the right move.
“There aren’t many schools where I would be able to sit down and talk to the dean monthly, or have such ready access to faculty,” she said. “It’s made a huge difference in my graduate experience.”
Her many accomplishments this year are indicative of her success as a student and researcher, and they have also served to help prepare her for future endeavors.
“I am pretty shy, so I’ve been presenting and competing as a way to get more public speaking experience as well as to promote my research,” she said. “It’s been a lot of fun, and I’m glad it’s been so well received.”
