Rachel Novick

Undergraduate Fellow

Rachel didn’t grow up a bug enthusiast, but she made time for hiking, camping, and building ant homes. Her general interests in biology eventually led her to take courses in environmental sciences in college. And after a couple on disease ecology and One Health, she found her many interests satisfied, particularly in the latter, an initiative to connect human, animal, and environmental studies into an overarching framework to study the health of our planet.

“Diseases are a cool way of looking at how humans, animals, and the environment come together. I never really considered that. It makes a lot of sense that it would all play together, but the first time you really think about it fully is still amazing.”

As a part of the tick research team here at Tyson, Rachel has to get used to dealing with the critters she used to avoid. But the large number of questions that research into ticks can help answer makes it all worth it.

“My first embedded tick was a good turning point. I lived. It’s actually not the worst thing ever. Out in the field, I am much more safety conscious, but it’s still serene. So far it’s been really great. I like being outside. I like appreciating everything, not just focusing on the humans, or the plants, or the animals. But everything at once.”

Rachel worked with Solny Adasteinsson's Tick & Wildlife Ecology team during summer 2019. Learn more about their prescribed fire and tick-borne disease ecology research here.