Kit Lord

Undergraduate Fellow

“I was always interested in ecology. I started out with the big carnivorous animals, and with time I’ve sort of traveled down the food chain. First, I appreciated plants as food for insects. Then I was like, wait, plants are super cool. The passion for one naturally flows from the other. And now I’m doing a project on soil organisms!”

After a previous field season working on the science communication team here at Tyson writing profiles like these, Kit now conducts research on plant and soil community interactions. Most of their time is spent tweaking the little mesocosms of various plant and microbe species to study how they interact. However, they never lost the unique ability to really zoom out and think about the human side.

“Even when I’m doing the scientific work, like measuring or planting stuff, it is data-oriented but for me there’s always that undercurrent of human emotion that runs through it. I feel like it would be really hard to try to remove that and stay engaged in the work.”

Along with this “undercurrent of human emotion”, Kit cites the Tyson community itself as a rich source of inspiration.

“It’s a great place to be. I think Tyson does a really good job of being supportive and inclusive. Everyone is there for each other. The environment isn’t just good for science; it’s good for scientists and the people who are doing the work as well. I’m excited to come to work. It’s really a great thing.”

Kit worked with Scott Mangan and Claudia Stein's Natural Enemies team during summer 2019. Learn more about their plant-microbial communities research here.