Author: Vanessa R. Melanson, PhD
Vanessa R. Melanson, PhD
An Intense Start to an Army Science Supervisory Role
The first three months of any job can cause trepidation because it’s like the proverbial black box, especially being in the military. As an Army Microbiologist in a research job, you should have the normal duties of a research scientist such as writing grants and scientific papers, running a labor...
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Vanessa R. Melanson, PhD
Diverse Career Paths in Microbiology
Having never worked in academia, I can’t accurately say what a normal career path is. However, I did see what my advisor in graduate school, UMASS Graduate School of Biomedical Science (GSBS), went through on a day to day basis for the little over four plus years I was there. Much of his ...
Vanessa R. Melanson, PhD
The Army Pentathlete
Being in the army, one has to wear many different hats. This is especially true with the current concept of a great military leader being a “pentathlete.” In non-military speak, this means that, as an army officer, not only do you have to be an expert in your area of concentration/military o...
Vanessa R. Melanson, PhD
The Beginning of My First Active Duty Assignment
So you know the saying, ‘be careful what you wish for, it might come true’? I hate to say it, but that is how I felt about my first active duty army assignment. Since I was a teenager, it was my dream to go onto active duty as an Army microbiologist (71A) and get stationed at the United Sta...
Vanessa R. Melanson, PhD
Motivated to Army Research
I guess I was a weird child. I think it’s fair to say that most children don’t know what they want to do when they grow up or they change their minds on a whim. That definitely wasn’t me. From as early as elementary school, I knew I wanted to be a scientist.
