Kim Medley
Tyson Director
“I find the research that is done here across all disciplines, incredibly important. The broad banner of many of the things that are done here is about how we can understand the environment, how humans impact it, how we can repair, restore, and conserve it, and how we can support the people that do this work. These are all both intellectually rich and practically important.”
Do you think people on the outside of the Tyson fence understand that?
“No, I don’t, and that’s why one of our goals since 2016 has been to get our work into the public eye more. We want people to understand what we are doing. There is some lore that goes around about Tyson so one of our goals is to translate the work we do into digestible terms so that the public can understand and appreciate the work we’re doing on things like climate change, drought, or biodiversity.”
If you could give advice to younger ecologists or younger people in general what would you say?
“Figure out who you are. I think too many folks rush towards an endpoint and three-quarters of the way realize they don’t like their direction. So figuring that out earlier is much better than later. I think that all the diverse experiences I had before I came to science constructed my mind in a way that allowed me to look at things really broadly.”
This broad perspective is what inspired Kim to promote interdisciplinary work here at Tyson. It also keeps her in tune with the diverse research conducted and the overall path forward.
What are some of your larger goals for the research done at Tyson?
“In terms of what a field station should be doing, some of the things we are trying to do more are long term investigations. Our work across urbanization gradients will hopefully extend for the long term and address questions about urban ecology, a field that is becoming increasingly more important. Some of the biggest, most pressing ecological issues are occurring in urban environments.”