Mieko Temple: Animal Nutrition, Drawing, and Diversity in Academia
This week we have an exciting new instalment to the ‘Meet a Scientist’ series, the one and only Mieko Temple! She’s a Master’s student at California Polytechnic State University, researching alternatives to antibiotics on chicken farms. In addition to contributing important agricultural research, she inspires younger generations to love animals and science through her drawings and social media activity.
Let’s start with your origin story. What inspired you to learn about zoology and veterinarian science?
Cliché beginning to my story: I have always loved animals. I didn’t want to be a veterinarian until much later though. Initially, I wanted to be a chef, zookeeper, astronaut, and President of the United States – I was an ambitious kid. Haha!
Veterinary medicine became the goal once I started riding horses. I had an 8th-grade graduation project that spurred (pun intended) my love for horses. That infatuation grew to include all aspects of their care, especially their health and medical care.
Zoology as a career aspiration only recently became my passion – I had always been a conservation nut, loving all animals and filing away numerous random factoids. I never connected the dots of my love for endangered species and veterinary medicine until I did a research fellowship at the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park last year. I worked with the Nutritional Services Department, formulating diets and managing the nutrition of hundreds of species and thousands of animals! We worked very closely with the Veterinary Services team, and that’s when the puzzle pieces clicked – zoological medicine!!
You’re currently completing a Master’s in Animal Nutrition. Tell us about what you are learning and researching!
My field is animal nutrition, but my research focuses on commercial broilers (AKA the chickens that give us chicken meat). I’m researching if we can feed these chickens alternatives to antibiotics in their food to keep them healthy and help them grow.
Antibiotics used to be fed to livestock in their food at very low doses to prevent infection and help them grow, but this has led to some antibiotic resistance and other issues. Now, antibiotics cannot be fed to livestock unless prescribed by a veterinarian for an infection, and alternatives to antibiotics are being investigated.
So, I’m testing whether a probiotic blend (“good bacteria” that encourage a healthy host animal) or an essential oil blend (some essential oils have been found to have natural antimicrobial properties) can be just as good or better than antibiotics in livestock food to keep animals healthy and strong.
What has the Master’s experience been like?
It’s been both positive and challenging. Positives have been the lifelong friends I developed. When I first started, another new graduate student and I were ‘shoved’ together by our advisors. They basically said “You’ll need each other. Make friends. Go!” We had lunch together, the two of us…it was a bit of an awkward affair at first, but we quickly became incredibly close friends, and since have continued to stay in contact, though she’s graduated and moved on in her career.
I have several other stories like this of bonding with other graduate students through the rigour and challenges of our graduate program. There’s deep solidarity in shared struggles. And struggle I have! The biggest challenges I faced were completely out of my control, too, which was all the more frustrating.
There was a point where I couldn’t do anything because any forward progress was dependent on data being returned to me. So, in the interim, I went and worked for San Diego Zoo Global as a nutrition research fellow! I was able to apply my skills learned in my Master’s so far in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that helped me realize my true calling: veterinary medicine. So as frustrated as I was to be delayed in finishing my Master’s by over a year, I can’t be too upset – I wouldn’t have had this undeniable conviction of what I’m meant to do.
Why is your research important?
What makes me so excited and proud to be the one executing my research is that it will help the livestock industry and our food supply be healthier and more sustainable. By avoiding the overuse of antibiotics, we can reduce antibiotic resistance and save this resource for the treatment of serious medical conditions.
Additionally, I believe my research will help build a stronger bridge between next-generation science and agriculture. Often, people see agriculture as an arcane tradition of old men ploughing dirt fields…when in fact, agriculture fosters some of most cutting edge scientific developments to date – so it’s not going anywhere. Investing in the future of agriculture for a safer and more reliable food supply will only benefit society and the sustainability of our future.
[Qualifier: this research is specific to the US agriculture industry, and may or may not be applicable to other countries.]
You also have a passion for drawing. The way you use dots to add depth and shade is incredible! Where does your love for drawing fit in, and how does it contribute to the way you communicate science?
Drawing has always been an outlet for me. I have shreds of school notes from over the years covered in all kinds of drawings and sketches. Honing it from paper margin doodles to the fully-fledged pieces I create now has been such an exciting journey.
My creative energy comes most strongly when I need a break or distraction from the stress of graduate school, or when I’m inspired by someone I know or care about. But what excites me the most is being able to share facts and conservation research in the captions of my pieces via social media. Humans are such a visual species – so I use my art as a way to invite my audience in, and then I use my captions to help them realize a greater perspective than they might have had before engaging with my art.
Mieko's illustration of a southern Pacific rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus helleri)
You’re also very vocal about the importance of women and people of colour in STEM. What has your experience as an Asian-American scientist been, and is there anything you would like to change in the scientific community for greater inclusivity?
Science’s history is unfortunately marred with many exploitations of historically marginalized people. Reparations for this history start with a minimum of greater equity and inclusivity of these peoples within this broad field: more women in science, greater recognition of and funding for BIPOC, queer, etc. peoples, to start.
My personal experience as a female Asian-American in science has thankfully been mostly positive; but it does take a toll on you, not seeing others like yourself in a field you aspire to work in. Especially in zoological medicine, many of the leading experts are white male veterinarians. My only concession on this is that many are of an older generation where women and BIPOC weren’t afforded the ability to participate as easily in higher education such as veterinary medicine, like white men were.
I look forward to being someone who can support and encourage the next generation of STEM experts, mentoring a greater diversity of people to contribute to the wonderful field that is science.
What are your productivity tips and hacks for young researchers? Any advice for a younger self?
The best way I’ve found to study is to teach others. If you can teach someone else a concept, you’ve mastered it. Practice together, take turns teaching each other concepts, and you’ll hone not only your knowledge for that task/class, but also skills as an educator, mentor, and leader.
As for productivity, I was always very meticulous about planning out my calendar. If it wasn’t in my calendar, it didn’t happen. Classes, study sessions, even self-care time, I schedule it into my calendar. It’s almost like a diary of sorts. It helps me organize my thoughts and tasks at hand. Being organized and staying regimented in my schedule always helped me better tackle my tasks!
If I could give my younger self advice…I’d probably say give myself more “buffer time”. That way if something goes wrong or long, I don’t have things back to back to back so that I’m late (which I hate being, it stresses me out and feels so disrespectful to other people!).
Why do you think it is important to educate young people about science, and what is the best way to inspire them?
I’m biased, but I believe that science is a unique field in that it not only teaches one about the history of the world but is also equips a person to understand and explore the present and future. By learning where our world came from and how it works, we’re taught how to wonder and ponder. So often I see the wonder for our world slowly die in people as they grow up, but teaching science to young people can help fortify that wonder and curiosity.
I could sit and stare at ants or a patch of grass for hours, just admiring the microscopic goings-on of life, or contemplate the cosmos, awed by our tiny insignificance. How special we are! I try and confer this passion for wondering to everyone I have a chance to meet and mentor. If even an ounce of this curiosity can be passed on, I have every hope that a happy and healthy future for our Earth is possible.
What is your vision for the planet over the next 50 years? What would you like to see happen?
I would love to see a global commitment to sustainability and reversing some of the effects of the global climate crisis we’re experiencing right now. Obviously, this is a very complex vision, especially given the disparity of resources the Global North has access to as compared to the Global South, and the majority of pollution being caused by corporations (and not by individual consumers like you and me).
Hopefully, as more individuals get onboard and call for change via the local and federal government, we will see a change in the management of corporations and countries to positively affect the climate crisis.
Finally, what’s on the horizon for Mieko Temple?
I’m going to FINISH this Masters (finally!!) and then go on to veterinary school to pursue zoological medicine. It’s a long (and expensive) road, but I haven’t been more sure of a next step than this. I will continue to inspire a love for science and conservation through my art, and be an advocate for young people, especially BIPOC and queer scientists, to be leaders in science.
To follow Mieko’s research journey and check out her art, go to her Instagram (@miekotemple), Facebook, Twitter, and website.