7 Things About Cove Sturtevant
A personal Q & A with a Ph.D. candidate in the joint-doctoral program in ecology.
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What inspired you to do this kind of work?
Since I was a kid I was fascinated with space and space travel, so I got my bachelor's and master's in aerospace engineering. My sights were always set far away from Earth because I felt we had this planet relatively figured out and that space was the most important unknown. Slowly, however, I began to realize that I was wrong, we very much do not have this planet figured out and in fact we seemed to be changing it for the worse. So I decided I wanted to put my energy toward environmental issues, and soon I focused on wanting to increase our knowledge of how the Earth's climate is changing and why, so that informed decisions can be made by people most suited to do so. That is what has brought me to SDSU's Global Change Research Group, focusing on how changes in soil carbon storage in the Arctic may be a feedback to climate change. -
How long have you been at SDSU?
I have just finished my fourth year at SDSU, the first I spent as a research assistant in my lab and the following three I have been a graduate student. -
What is the best piece of advice you ever received?
Regarding graduate school, the best piece of advice I received came from a professor who said that making the grade is not important now. Instead, completing my research and communicating those results was. It was (and still is) hard to make the the choice between devoting limited time to research versus classwork, but the advice I received to focus on the former has helped me greatly. -
What is your favorite thing about your program?
There is a new puzzle to solve every day. Whether it is how to best take measurements in the field or figuring out what the data says, it is always interesting. It's also really cool to create your own project and go do it. Scary, but cool. -
What are the societal benefits of your research?
The research in which I am a part of is important to understanding how climate change may be mitigated or exacerbated in the future due to a feedback from arctic regions. This information is crucial to prepare for the future. I don't think our world is going to end from climate change. However, I think there will be a lot of economic and environmental stresses that will reduce the quality of life for many people and species across the globe. We need to understand where we are headed as a planet in order to prepare and/or do our best to mitigate the consequences. -
What is the most important characteristic a researcher must demonstrate in order to be an effective researcher?
Communication. Without communication, even the most amazing discovery will be limited to the person who found it. Ever more in this age, scientific results need to be communicated clearly and to a wide audience so that they may be useful to society. -
What about your field or position do you think would surprise people the most?
Coming from engineering to ecology I would never have expected that I would have to be good at electronics. Instruments are complicated and often suddenly stop working the way they are supposed to, and there is usually nobody there but yourself to fix them.
1. What is the most interesting or surprising thing about you? I would say that most people are surprised to learn that I have been vegan for almost eight years now. 2. What is your favorite restaurant? My favorite restaurant is called the Watercourse in Denver, Colo. (where I'm from). It's an all-vegetarian restaurant that makes the most delicious vegan food I never make for myself, things like mashed potatoes and gravy, waffles, snickerdoodle cookies. I go every time I return to Colorado.
3.What city would you like to visit or visit again? I really enjoyed Portland, Ore. I love the amount of greenery, and it's such a pedestrian-friendly city. I'd actually like to move there one day.
4. What is your favorite book?My favorite book is called Ringworld by Larry Niven. It's the kind of science fiction that could really theoretically happen and gets your imagination all fired up. More 7 Things Profiles
