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Hello! I'm Suzanne Tyas and I'm pleased to be an e-mentor for GEM-SET.
I'm currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky.
My educational background is fairly traditional for a university
professor: my degrees include a Bachelor of Science (in Human Biology),
a Master of Science (in Pathology, the study of diseases), and a
PhD (in Epidemiology, the study of diseases in populations).
As a university professor, I both teach and do research. My main
area of research focuses on what factors put people at risk of developing
Alzheimer's disease. So, for example, in a recent study I showed
that people who smoke are at greater risk of developing Alzheimer's
disease: the more they smoke, the greater the risk. Alzheimer's
disease is a devastating condition that occurs mainly in people
over 65. It causes increasing memory loss and degeneration of the
brain; people with Alzheimer's disease become unable to look after
themselves and do not even recognize their own family members. As
you can imagine, this is devastating to the person themselves as
well as to their family and friends. I got interested in Alzheimer's
disease because I saw how it robbed people of their own identity;
when you lose all your memories, you lose who you are. It is tragic
to die without any of your memories and--because you don't remember
them--without any family or friends. So, I wanted to do something
about it. The reason I decided on a career in research is that I
like to make new discoveries, to extend our knowledge of the world
and ourselves. In research, you study what has been found so far,
and then develop a research project to push that frontier of knowledge
forward.
Epidemiology is not as well known as traditional GEM-SET disciplines
such as math, chemistry, and biology. However, it is getting more
attention recently with concerns about SARS (severe acute respiratory
syndrome) and mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy,
BSE). Epidemiology was not a field I considered as a career until
I had already finished my undergraduate degree. Epidemiology is
almost always a graduate degree, that is, you would complete a bachelor's
degree first and then do a Master's degree and/or PhD in epidemiology.
If you are interested in health and in math, you may want to consider
a career in epidemiology-feel free to contact me for further info!
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