Katherine Mifflin, a member of Dr. Bradley Kerr's Lab, has been awarded the 2014 Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship.
This is the most prestigious graduate award administered by the University of Alberta, with less than 15 awards distributed across the entire graduate student population in all disciplines.
Congratulations Katherine for this outstanding accomplishment!
You must have felt so honoured when you found out you were a 2014 Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship recipient. What was your initial reaction?
I was very honoured to receive the award. I know there were a lot of strong competitors from across different faculties here at the University of Alberta, and it is humbling to be selected. I am extremely grateful that the committee selected my application.
Bb>What is the key to your success?
I think the key to success lies in two things: hard work and luck. Everyone I know works hard, but I have been lucky in finding an area of research that I am passionate about early on and having excellent people to work with.
Can you briefly describe your area of research?
My research area involves understanding the mechanisms behind chronic pain. Specifically, I am interested in how different neurotransmitter systems can contribute to pain behaviours. In addition, understanding the differences in how males and females respond to pain is a large part of my research.
Can you briefly describe how you initially became interested in this area?
I first became interested in understanding how pain works during my undergraduate degree. I was working for Dr. Jill Chorney at Dalhousie University to understand how cognition is affected in children with chronic pain. While doing this research, I realized that very little is known about how chronic pain arises/functions and that without a better understanding of how this condition works advances in treatment cannot be made. After my time in Dr. Chorney's lab that I wanted to do research at a more cellular/systems level to better understand the underlying mechanisms of chronic pain.
What advice do you have for students who are considering pursuing research and a career in the area of Neuroscience?
One of the most helpful things I was able to do before entering graduate school was work in different research labs. It allowed me to see how a lab is run, meet different researchers and students, and explore what type of research I was interested in. I would suggest that anyone interested in pursuing research or a career in Neuroscience should try and get as much experience in a lab as possible. Most often, supervisors are more than happy to talk to you about their research and there are many summer studentships and volunteer experiences available.