Eleanor Field talks research, leadership, work-life balance, and more

Photo courtesy of Eleanor Field

Shortly after earning her bachelor’s degree, Eleanor Field took a humanitarian trip to Guatemala. While there, she witnessed public health officials responding to the outbreak of a mosquito-borne virus.

As she watched the officials conduct interviews and collect mosquitoes, she found herself fascinated by their work. This interest led her to earn a master’s degree in global heath from Georgetown University and ultimately brought her to Iowa State, where she is now a Ph.D. candidate in entomology and the president of the Graduate and Professional Student Senate.

Assistant entomology professor Ryan Smith offered Field a research assistantship in his lab in 2016, and she found that much of his work matched her research interests.

“The lab checked all the boxes, and everyone was so friendly when I visited campus. So I moved to Iowa [and drove] 18 hours with my two screaming cats,” she said with a laugh.

Field’s main research focus is on disease patterns in mosquitoes. Mosquito surveillance data, as well as human data, shows that mosquitoes typically only transmit the West Nile virus to humans during the late summer. Her lab is currently investigating why this happens.

“We’re trying to look at it as, is there something in the mosquito that’s making them more vulnerable to the infection? If a mosquito is born in May, is it more resistant to the virus than a mosquito that’s born in August, which is when we see peak infection?” Field said. “And we’re looking at whether mosquitoes are feeding more heavily on humans later in the season and just pushing the disease into us more. Mosquitoes also hibernate, so we’re trying to understand if their hibernation is what’s causing the decline in the cases. Just trying to put the whole story together.”

Last October, Field took on the challenge of telling her research story in Iowa State’s annual Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. She earned the top prize and will participate in a regional 3MT competition in April.

“I started [preparing for 3MT] with a 10-minute talk. Then I was like, what can I cut? I finally ended up with something that has the essentials of what I’m interested in and is understandable,” she said. “Three Minute Thesis gives you a chance to think critically about what people want to know and how you can be heard better.”

Another thing has helped Field sharpen her professional skills, including leadership and time management, is her involvement in the Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS). She initially got involved in the GPSS as a senator during her first year at Iowa State. After noticing that she had ideas for improvement, she ran for president and was elected in 2019.

“My biggest goal [as president] has always been increasing and improving involvement in GPSS,” she said. To that end, she has organized events this academic year, such as coffee hours and social events, to help members of GPSS get to know each other and take breaks from their academic work.

Field believes it is vital for graduate students to step away from their work on occasion. She tries to take 15-minute breaks throughout the day and to work just a few hours over the weekends. She and her labmates sometimes recharge by buying good food and making extravagant lunches together. When she’s not in her lab, she does her best to adopt an “out-of-the-office” mentality.

“You can’t lay in bed at 11:00 thinking about how busy your day is tomorrow. That’s not sustainable and you can’t do that to yourself,” she said.

After she earns her doctorate, Field hopes to take everything she’s learned at Iowa State to a research scientist role with an organization like the Center for Disease Control and Prevention or the World Health Organization. She wants to keep working on insect surveillance and help monitor and prepare for new insect-borne viruses.

There is a part of the future that Field is not excited for, however: making the drive out of Iowa after having recently adopted a third cat.

“I’m not looking forward to leaving, because then it’ll be with three screaming cats,” she said.