Back in April, 109 donors (and some generous matching grants) helped us raise $32,240 dollars during the UW-Madison’s annual “Day of the Badger” fundraising campaign. Every dollar went to our Student Support Fund and gave a group of amazing undergraduates summer fellowships. We wanted to share what your support meant to our students. Here’s what UW-Madison senior, Emily Ledin had to say. Stay tuned for recaps from more students!
_______________
My name is Emily Ledin and I am from Middleton, WI – a suburb of Madison. This fall I am going to be a senior at UW-Madison majoring in environmental sciences and life sciences communication.
This summer I was hired to help the Cascade project, which is a long-running research project run by the Center for Limnology that is stationed at the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC) along the border of Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
My job consisted of a lot of fieldwork – we sampled every, single day this summer, including on weekends! In addition, every week I went into the field to get samples to test for greenhouse gases in the water and the sediments of our three study lakes.
We didn’t just do fieldwork, though. Everyday we grabbed water samples to test for chlorophyll and phycocyanin (a pigment in blue-green algae), and had to run those samples each week through machines back in the lab as well as do a lot of other post-field sample processing.
This summer I also got to work on an independent project, which looked at something not many researchers have looked at before – whether methane levels in the water vary as you move from the surface to the lake bottom AND from the shoreline to the middle of the lake.
It’s an important piece of information, because methane is a very potent greenhouse gas and knowing how lakes contribute gases to the atmosphere is crucial to better understanding climate change.
I LOVED my time in the Northwoods. I have worked at the Center for Limnology for two years now, but both years were spent in Madison at Hasler Lab.
As much as I love Madison, it was so amazing to see the beautiful lakes up in Northern Wisconsin. There were some challenges at times – my three weekend shifts were pretty close together so I definitely struggled with some tiredness, but it was definitely worth it. I can’t believe I got paid to live in the woods and do what I love (aquatic ecology research)!
The biggest thing that I learned this summer was that I love methane research! I have always been interested in carbon and nutrient cycling, but I wasn’t fully convinced to get on the greenhouse gas train. However, the research I did this summer was so exciting and cool that I am definitely aboard now!
My experience this summer has convinced me that methane and greenhouse gas research is definitely something I may want to pursue in the future. In addition, my independent project solidified for me that I want to go to graduate school and pursue my passion for research.
A moment that stands out to me was the Fellows Luncheon where I got to present my research to Trout Lake Station donors, as well as my current supervisors, past supervisor, and the faculty member who leads our lab. I was really proud of my project and it was so cool that they got to hear about it and I could tell that they were all super proud, which was super rewarding.
I want to express my sincerest thank you to the Day of the Badger supporters who made my summer possible! This was a life-changing experience, and because of the cool research I was a part of this summer, I get to continue doing research at the Center for Limnology in the fall which is VERY exciting. All the people who supported Day of the Badger helped support my dream of doing aquatic ecology research and I am very, very grateful!
