Raine Mercedes is a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience. Her research focuses on characterising coagulotoxins in the saliva of native Australian blood-feeding arthropods. Through her research Raine hopes to identify novel anticoagulant peptides, which could also be used to treat thromboembolic disorders. She is also hoping to explain the mammalian molecular target of holocyclotoxins from the eastern paralysis tick, Ixodes holocyclus.

Interviewee: Raine Mercedes

1. Biomed Sci & B.Sci (Hons), 

PhD Student

Institute for Molecular Bioscience

Interviewer: Zac Prior, Manager of Project @ DeadlyScience

What were your thoughts coming into and leaving the session? 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect

But it was really fun

The students make you think about things you don’t think about on a daily basis

They‘re really different. It’s endearing

How did you get involved with DS? 

I was looking into different science communication pathways, and a friend was helping out at a DeadlyScience thing at one of the local schools. Plus I really like the t-shirt! I put in an application to work with DeadlyScience about 1 -2 months ago. I’ve never really done much work with kids, and I thought it would be exciting, and I know they are interested in the field I work in. Also because I went to a school in a lower socio economic area, I want to teach kids that don’t necessarily have the same advantage as kids in wealthier areas… because I never really had that growing up.

What role did you play? 

I guess the main role I felt I was playing was to show students what type of jobs you can have as a scientist. I think ‘scientist’ is a really broad term and they don’t always know what you actually end up doing. You might see a scientist on TV, but if you give them more information about the actual science you’re working on… that’s the role I feel like I was playing – Narrowing it down a bit more for them. It’s really nice when you see the kids jump up and shout “me me me”, and obviously showing that they are engaged. 

Stand out moment? 

When one of the students asked me if I was a cat or a dog person because I think that type of question extends outside of my role… like “I want to know what you’re actually like as a person”. So that was nice. That was cute. 

Strengths or feedback 

It is obviously a very easy delivery method because a lot of STEM professionals are very time  limited, so they want to do something like this in the easiest way possible, which I guess is over zoom. However at the same time, a lot of scientists hate doing things over zoom. It’s really common for scientists to want to do things in person, which in a lot of ways I understand. Because I also prefer to do things in person, but I’m not closed off to doing things on zoom. I think also, if you’re in person, especially in the field I work in, ‘ in person’ can be a little bit more exciting because we do a lot of tours, so we have kids that come in and they get to see a spider and that’s really exciting for them. So it’s very dependent on the type of STEM person you’re interviewing. I think that’s one of the limitations, and I know it’s not the easiest to get people to travel out to different schools, but I think hands-on stuff where they’re seeing live animals or even seeing an exoskeleton .. kids just find that so exciting!