Monday, August 29, 2022

APC Lab Alum Spotlight: Anahita Mehta

Profile Image of Anahita Mehta

Current Employer: Kresge Hearing Research Institute, University of Michigan.  

Current Job Title: Assistant Professor, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.                                      

Current website: Coming soon!   

When were you in the APC Lab?   Sept 2015-April 2022

What position did you have during your time at the APC Lab (e.g. PhD student, postdoc)? Postdoctoral Associate from 2015-2019, Research Associate from 2019-2022

What was your favorite project/paper from your time in the APC Lab? The Wojtczak et al, 2017 paper. Working with Andrew and Magda together was an incredible experience for me as a first-year postdoc. I learnt a lot about how to think through and debate different points of view by just being present in the meetings for this paper. 

Favorite restaurant to grab a bite to eat in the Twin Cities/campus? K-Bop

Do you have any funny stories about your time in the lab to share? There are so many! But if I had to pick one, I would say the time when we had a CATSS photoshoot and Andrew and I were told to look ‘more scientific’ by the photographer so we had to point to an oscilloscope and pretend to be intrigued by the noise it was recording. The worst part is that the photo is still used for the Psych department research website front page!

Favorite scientific conference to attend? ARO

Any words of advice for current students/researchers? Don’t be afraid of putting forth your ideas and try and add new techniques to your skill set. Even if 19 of your 20 of your ideas don’t pan out, the one that works is going to be pretty solid   Help your lab mates with their projects if they need pilot subjects or need to brainstorm some analyses (science is a team effort). And lastly, if you don’t know what to do, ask Heather…she knows everything.