Katie Westby

she/her
Tyson Staff Scientist
Mosquito Team

How did you get here? What brought you to Tyson?

I did my PhD at Illinois State, which is 3½ hours from here. My PI had actually done a sabbatical at Tyson, and he had a grant to continue studying the mosquito communities. So, I would get up at 5 o’clock in the morning, and drive a bunch of snoring boys in a 12-passenger van down here. We’d work in the field for hours and get covered in ticks, then have to sit in those ticks and drive back to Illinois. It was miserable. We’d often have lab work to do later, so it was pretty hardcore. As I was finishing my dissertation, a postdoc job opened up here and I was like no, screw Tyson, I hate that place. My PhD advisor told me that if I didn’t apply he would never talk to me again. And so I applied, and got the job, and I came, and it’s been amazing. I never left.

How does Tyson feel different from other research experiences you’ve had in the past?

The focus on community building and mentoring is not anything I had ever experienced before coming here. I obviously had been mentored before, but here we’re so intentional with undergrads, too. In other labs that I had worked in, we had a select few undergrads that didn’t do much beyond grunt work. There were a few over the years that had their own projects, but very few. And the conscious community building is different from any other lab that I’ve worked in. Eating lunch together is unique. My colleagues who are professors at different places are all very envious of me. It’s a special place.

What do you like and dislike about running a team?

I’m one of those extroverted introverts. I may appear very social all the time, but it’s a lot of having to be smart and talk. It’s exhausting. It’s also great. The kids teach me so much and we always have a good time. But it’s a lot. It’s my favorite thing and my least favorite thing at the same time. I love imparting knowledge and teaching, mentoring people through how to set up an experiment. But it does take a toll on me. I get home and my husband tries to talk to me, and I’m like, no. Can’t you see that I’m playing the spelling bee on my phone?

Why mosquitoes?

What isn’t to love about blood sucking arthropods? I mean, I don’t know. I’m really into bugs and disease and gross stuff. When I initially got into mosquitoes, it was an ah-ha moment. I took a class as an undergrad on the biology of infectious disease. That was the first time I’d really learned about all these insane diseases, and parasites, and parasites that spread parasites. I initially figured I’d be more program-y, like distributing bed nets and working more on the disease angle. But when I got to grad school, I quickly figured out that I couldn’t stand those classes, and I loved the -ologies. Medical entomology, parasitology. I wormed my way into a lab and started piddling around, trying to learn how to do science. And I was like yep, yep, yep, yep! This is it.