Collaborations are fun!

Almost all of my research to this point has been highly collaborative. Working with really smart, energetic, fun colleagues is one of my favorite parts of my job. For my PhD I spent three summers in the field with PI's from four institutions (including my PhD advisor) along with multiple graduate students and undergraduates. My post-doctoral work again, was highly collaborative, as there were multiple institutions and many disciplines involved in our work trying to understand the effects of stream restoration on environmental quality, as well as socioeconomic dynamics in Baltimore, MD. Not only is it fun to collaborate with people, you also learn new skills, can tackle bigger questions, and typically end up being much more productive than you would be on your own. The NY Times wrote a great article on what constitutes an effective team after studying team dynamics at Google, and there are a lot of great tips in there. 

Ultimately, though, the success of a team is judged on its productivity. Here at the University of Florida, I'm lucky to have joined a cohort focused on Sustainable Human and Ecological Development (SHED). I'm hoping that my collaborative experiences in the past will lead to success moving forward.

Recently, I was lucky enough to be asked to join an already highly productive team to add some of my skills for a recent paper focused on nitrogen assimilation in headwater streams. The team that I joined has worked together for many years and have done some great work, and I'm happy that our paper was just recently published online in Ecological Monographs.