BIRCH ISLAND—The folks at the Whitefish River First Nation have a pretty good reason to be proud of one of their expat members these days with the recent announcement that doctoral candidate Marlene Paibomesai of Guelph captured first place in the Canadian division of the Alltech Young Scientist Competition and placed second overall in the North American division—no small feat when it is considered that 8,500 young scientists registered for the competition and submitted a paper on their research for consideration.
Ms. Paibomesai is studying epigenetic control of immune factors and its relation to immune phenotypes in dairy cattle. The doctoral student chuckled when a puzzled journalist called her up and asked for a translation of what that actually means. “Basically, I am studying the impact that the stress of calving has on the immune systems of cows,” she laughed. In these days of growing concern over the use of antibiotics in agriculture, that seems like a pretty important field study. “It does,” she agreed.
Ms. Paibomesai, who has secured a fulltime gig at the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Agri-food, is currently working about 20 hours a week on her doctorate. She credits Professor Bonnie Mallard of the Department of Pathobiology at the University of Guelph who supervises Ms. Paibomesai’s PhD dissertation with inspiring her work. “Over the past 25 years she has been successfully working on selective breeding to be naturally healthy,” she said. Ms. Paibomesai’s work with OMAFRA fits into her skill set wonderfully, “I work with dairy cows and dairy cattle health,” she said.
Ms. Paibomesai is in the final stages of her PhD program, working toward her dissertation. It has been a daunting odyssey but one in which she said she has had a lot of support and that the she has found to be very rewarding. “I really have to thank Whitefish River First Nation,” she said. “They have provided tremendous support to me in attaining my educational goals.”
Her dissertation has grown to a massive five-chapter project. The paper she submitted for the competition was based on her original research, but the competition entries can also be literature reviews.
To young people thinking about a career in the sciences Ms. Paibomesai had a few words of advice. “You have to be very self motivated,” she said. “It is up to you to finish the work. At the end of the day, it is you who has to make sure it happens. I have had a tremendous opportunity presented to me, but it has come through a lot of hard work and self motivation.”
Her volunteer work has had a huge impact on her career opportunities, she noted. “It is a huge thing,” said Ms. Paibomesai. “You set yourself apart by being involved in your area of study.” The connections and networking that volunteerism provides is a definite bonus to the feel good aspects. Ms. Paibomesai has worked as a 4H leader and worked with Alltech’s ‘Let’s Talk Science’ youth outreach program.
In fact, Ms Paibomesai’s work with the Alltech program is as a volunteer ambassador in a program aimed at instilling a love of science amongst youth. The Alltech Young Scientist program work is how she came to be entered in the competition. The program aims at promoting all aspects of science in the elementary and high school systems.
“Science has taken a bit of a hit in society recently. There is a distrust of scientists,” she noted. “The more information we can get out there, the more we can promote critical thinking among young people.”
Ms. Paibomesai’s life is not all about sitting in front of a computer screen and pouring over deep scientific tomes and number charts. She keeps very active physically as well. “I play a lot of sports,” she said. “I am heading out to play ultimate Frisbee with friends this evening.”
