Eve Meyer finds her path to research at SFU Biological Sciences

Eve Meyer came to SFU Earth Sciences with a huge rock collection and a lot of curiosity about the natural world.

The job prospects and opportunities to do field work attracted her to geology, but once she began to take classes, it didn’t feel like the right fit.

“In my second year I took EASC 210 which covered the formation of Earth and the start of life.” I kept coming back to the fossils we were identifying and evolution rather than the geological processes.” She took a break from Earth Sciences to complete her WQB requirements, and finally took BISC 101 at the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown.

“Even from home I recognized I wanted to change my major,” she says. But changing course two and a half years in meant going back to basics and setting aside a lot of the progress she’d made in her degree.

“I felt self-conscious for a long time about how long it took me to complete my degree and how much money I thought I was wasting while I worked and went to school,” she says. “Even once I had established myself as a biology major, I had a serious case of imposter syndrome.”

However, once Meyer made the switch to Biological Sciences, many new opportunities opened up. In the summer of 2020 she volunteered to help with research at Gries Lab on a study on stable flies. She stayed on at the lab to complete a study semester, BISC 49X, and was invited to present her work at the 2022 Joint Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America, Entomological Society of Canada, and Entomological Society of BC, where her presentation won first place in the Medical and Urban Veterinary Entomology category.

She went on to do a second research semester studying European Starlings at Williams Lab, which helped her develop her data analysis skills.

But it was an Independent Study Semester in Julian Christians’ lab that helped her decide what she was most passionate about. “My project was a systematic review of sex differences in the effects of prenatal maternal health on neurodevelopmental outcomes,” she says. “I have to thank Julian Christians for giving me the opportunity to work on this project, and for lecturing BISC 472 which sparked my interest in the developmental origins of health and disease.”

Still, it was challenging to find time for herself while studying and trying to hold down multiple jobs. “Time management was major,” she says. This became even harder when her father passed away. “I was TAing for the first time, taking a required course, and completing my first BISC49X research course,” she says.

“I did not take the time I should have to process this, and the following semester jumped straight into a difficult course load to try to catch up with my degree.” It was too much, and her grades suffered. “I learned that regardless of time, you must make time for yourself, your mental health and self-reflection.”

She credits the community she found in the Biological Sciences department for helping her find her way.

“Not everyone takes the same path, and it might take a lot of poking and prodding until you find yours. Getting involved and speaking to a diverse group of people in age, background, and experiences helped me connect with myself and find what I enjoy doing.”