About Me
As my site might suggest, my name (well, nickname) is Beppa.
I made this site many moons ago as a way to document my thoughts and keep folks updated on the goings-on in my life.
At the present, I’m a PhD candidate studying medical mycology/fungal cell morphology. My main work focuses on figuring out what the fungal cell is doing to survive certain antifungal drugs and seeing if there’s a way we can exploit that to make better treatments.
Although most of my daily brain power goes into my lab work these days, I’ve developed a number of rather eclectic hobbies and interests throughout my life. I love video games, reading, and language learning. I’m also a super mediocre bird watcher, and I like trying to ID fungal species I find on hikes.
On the artsy side, I enjoy photography, playing accordion, and whatever craft I can get my hands on (lately I’ve been making traditional Lithuanian papercutting, called “karpiniai”).
And in efforts to be well-rounded, I’ve also been trying to be a bit more sporty, leading me to get into rock and ice climbing, caving, and running (I ran my first half marathon May 2024)!
Being a total nerd, I earned my B.S. in Biological Sciences with a minor in Chemistry with Honors from University of Illinois at Chicago, then went on to earn my M.Sc. in Molecular Biology, Microbiology and Biochemistry at SIU Carbondale.
I’ve also worked as a pharmacy technician and ESL teacher, the latter actually taking me to Honduras for a brief time!
I assume many people coming here already know me personally, but if not, welcome to my site and enjoy my random musings and adventures!