Magen Lord (Roper)
Nutritional Sciences
Ph.D. student hopes to use skills advance sustainability efforts in the life sciences
- Hometown
Griffin
- Major/minor
Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences
- Activities/Honors
- Chair of the New Investigator Advisory Committee of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior
- Four first-author publications with one more to be submitted and a co-author on four others
- Numerous FACS scholarships
- First place oral presentation (2024) and first place poster presentation (2023) at the UGA Obesity Initiative Symposium
- Five oral presentations given at UGA, in Chicago and Porto, Portugal.
- Six poster presentations given virtually, at UGA, in Atlanta and in Portland, Oregon
- Volunteer with the ACC Trail Ambassadors and the Classic City Marathon
- Why I chose my major
I chose to join Dr. Noble’s nutritional neuroscience lab because I was interested in how the brain orchestrates our behaviors and what role good nutrition plays in enhancing neurocognitive function. It was also an opportunity to be mentored by Dr. Noble, who is a prominent scientist in the field. When I first joined the program, I had plans of taking what I learned about nutrition and brain health and becoming a dietitian, but when I knew that wasn’t the path for me, I then fully focused my efforts on training to become an independent scientist.
- What I like most about FACS
The scholarship opportunities! The FACS scholarships that backed my education shrank the financial stress that would have kept me from dedicating my attention to my assistantship, research, and courses. My scholarships were absolutely fundamental to completing my Ph.D.
- Post-graduation plans
In my years of working in the animal facility and in the wet lab, it was constantly gnawing on me that my work was producing an immense amount of waste. In my personal life, I’m intensely passionate about being a good steward of the earth and leaving her better than I found her. I compartmentalized those thoughts and eventually came to terms with the reality that research will produce waste and there was nothing I could do about that. But a few months ago, the Green Labs program at UGA came across my desk and opened my eyes to the scores of initiatives in place at UGA, across the country, and internationally that are specifically targeted at addressing the issue of sustainability in scientific research. After graduation, I hope to use the skills I’ve gained as a trained scientist to advance sustainability efforts in the life sciences in an academic setting, bringing my professional activities in line with my ultimate goals. I may also find myself back in my lab coat as a researcher, renewed with the knowledge that I can make my science sustainable; time will tell!
