Background Information on Alissa Severson:

 Source of Scientist Photo: Provided by the Scientist
The Scientist Spotlights Initiative was made possible by NIH Grant #20433000
Background Information on Alissa Severson:
Dr. Alissa Severson didn’t grow up around
scientists and wasn’t really sure what it
meant to do science. She found herself
drawn to science, though, and decided she
would figure out in college what being a
scientist was all about. She went to Carleton
College, a small college in the Midwest.
While studying abroad in Budapest, Alissa
became fascinated with bioinformatics, a
field that uses math and computing to
understand large biology data sets. After
returning to Carleton College, one of Alissa’s
chemistry professors remarked, “Oh, I don’t
really know what bioinformatics is. Could
you tell me?” Alissa was surprised that, as
an undergrad, she was being asked to
explain something to a professor!
Alissa knew she wanted to go to graduate school, but having attended a small college
with relatively little research experience, she had little idea what grad school was all
about. This made her feel insecure and less prepared than students that attended large,
research universities as undergrads. Alissa got into grad school in genetics at Stanford.
When meeting other grad students from big universities with lots of research
experience, Alissa had some doubts about whether she really belonged there. She
remembers thinking…
‘I don’t think I’m an idiot, but these other people are very smart and doing super
impressive things. I thought we were going to grad school to learn things, but all these
other people seem to already know this stuff!’
Even some professors made Alissa feel unwelcomed as a young scientist, but she’s
very thankful for the professors that did welcome her and showed her that she
belonged.
Source of Scientist Photo: Provided by the Scientist
The Scientist Spotlights Initiative was made possible by NIH Grant #20433000
Regarding the genetics project with the Ohlone tribe, Alissa says the entire approach to
the project was wonderful. There’s a long and painful history of genetic studies of
indigenous people, so it was remarkable that the Ohlone reached out and wished to
partner with scientists in this investigation. Alissa recalls that, every step of the way,
members of the tribe were involved. They helped develop the research questions,
regularly reviewed the progress of the study, and provided input on interpreting the
data. Toward the end, the researchers presented findings to
the tribe to find out if the results made sense and meshed with
the oral history of the tribe. Alissa is pleased that, in recent
years, there has been a bigger push to do this kind of
community-based research in biology.
Having finished her PhD and moved on to data analysis for
cancer studies, Alissa also likes cooking, skiing, hanging out
with friends, and watching reality TV. She especially got into
making bagels, which she feels pressure to get right, given that
her boyfriend is from New Jersey where they have a deep
appreciation for bagels! Some of Alissa’s Bagels