Written by Breyton Hill

Have you ever met a marine biologist who worked in the California desert? Meet Tori Jefferson, the BIT Program’s new lab manager.

Tori is originally from the Raleigh area and earned her undergraduate degrees here at NC State University in Marine and Environmental Sciences. She jokes “I was totally brainwashed for NC State from birth. Both my parents went to State. My granddad went to State. Even my great granddad went to State.” Tori is also a single mother and is continuing the brainwashing for NC State tradition with her daughter.

As for her career journey, Tori is one of many talented and successful scientists with a winding path. Although she graduated from NC State with Marine and Environmental Sciences degrees, she changed her major seven different times and thought about changing it even more. She also worked in four different labs during undergrad. Tori wanted to figure out what she liked and what she wanted to do, so she found opportunities to explore and expand her scientific skill sets.

During her time at NC State, Tori actually took several of the BIT Program classes; the Phage Hunters class was one of her favorite classes that she took as an undergrad. She was given a 50 mL conical tube and told to go find some dirt. With that dirt, their class was able to isolate a novel page and even publish a small paper on it. Tori was introduced to the realm of microbiology during the Phage Hunters class and fell in love.

“Realizing the impact of the microbiome and learning how much is going on that you can’t see was awesome.”
– Tori Jefferson

Additionally, Tori studied abroad one summer in South Caicos where she got to dive and manage underwater ecosystems.

After graduation, Tori moved to California for almost five years. There, she worked for the US Forest Service in population dynamics and conservation. However, missing microbiology, Tori moved back to North Carolina to earn her master’s degree at UNC Wilmington.

Her master’s, on paper, is in marine biology, but funnily enough, her research was in freshwater systems. Tori studied diazotrophs, which are bacteria that can take atmospheric nitrogen and convert it into ammonia, a form of bioavailable nitrogen, through nitrogen fixation. Specifically, she wanted to understand the nutrient dynamics of freshwater systems through algal blooms. That research actually fell under the 319 Section of the Clean Water Act which allowed for grant funding to investigate algal bloom frequency and toxicity. Tori told me so many awesome field work stories, even one about the alligators in Greenfield Lake. With the grant funding, Tori got back into microbiology, looking at nif-h genes through microbiome sequencing, qPCR, and 16S sequencing methods.

After graduating with her master’s, Tori was offered a job with another lab at UNC Wilmington to study coral disease research. She joked with me that she finally got to use her marine biology degree. As the lab manager there, Tori managed research operations, helped lead research projects, and mentored undergrads. The coral disease research was attempting to identify, isolate, and mass produce a probiotic to aid the coral before they got sick. Their research focuses on microbial interactions, coral disease, and leveraging beneficial bacteria (probiotics) to aid in coral restoration and resilience.  Additionally, the lab explored isochoric vitrification of coral – to keep coral cryopreserved in a viable state to later be reintroduced when conditions improved. Unfortunately, the coral research was grant funded, so Tori needed a new job after federal funding cuts. Fortunately, the BIT Program was hiring.

Tori’s job now involves lots of variability, which she likes. She talked about all the hats she gets to wear, some including safety officer, facilities liaison, research space manager, outreach coordination, and even interior design as the BIT Program is getting new storage cabinets. Tori is learning to teach with the BIT Program, along with doing benchwork in DNA, RNA, and proteins.

As we were wrapping up her interview, I asked Tori for some words of advice:

“It’s not only ok but it’s good to try a bunch of different things. Your degree is not your life. The more important part of college is getting the skills set and knowledge base rather than what the degree entitles. Additionally, you are never too old to go back to school, so take one gap year, take five gap years, life is to be lived and experienced.”
– Tori Jefferson

Tori believes that the BIT Program is setting students up quite well with research skills used in the real world, and she is excited to contribute to it.