Welcome! My name is Veronica Iriart (pronounced like Lake Erie + art) and I am a PhD student at the University of Pittsburgh in the Department of Biological Sciences. I am interested in global change ecology and conservation biology. My current research in the Ashman Lab focuses on the impacts of pesticide pollution on the ecology and evolution of beneficial species interactions between plants, pollinators, and microbes.

Before I narrowed down a topic for my PhD, I pursued a scattered set of research experiences. These included: Australian field wildlife research during a semester abroad at the University of Melbourne (Melbourne, VIC, AUS), integrative animal behavior work at my alma mater, Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, NC), and marine ecology and evolution research during an internship at the University of Massachusetts – Boston (Boston, MA).

I believe an important part of my job as a scientist is to act as a science communicator. My blog highlights some of my experiences in outreach and shares ideas that have helped me connect my research interests with larger audiences. I hope these posts may be also be useful to you!