Georgetown College. Georgetown University.

Maria Wadlington came to Georgetown’s biology department as an undergraduate after serving in the U.S. Marines for eight years. “Without sounding corny,” says Wadlington, it has been “a life long passion for animals and science” that brings her to where she is now. “From as far back as I can remember I have always wanted to work in biology.”

When selecting a lab to work in for her senior thesis, Wadlington gravitated to Dr. Weiss’ ecology lab because, she says, it “offered a unique opportunity. How often do you get to teach butterflies, collect wasps, and feed mantids?” Building upon Dr. Weiss’ research, Wadlington is studying learning and memory in monarch butterflies for her senior thesis. Happy with her choice of labs, Wadlington says of Dr. Weiss: “She allows you to think for yourself. She gives you ideas, to start and keep going, but never forces hers on you. She expects initiative but provides the right amount of guidance to keep you on track. Additionally, she creates a lab atmosphere that is welcoming and personal. Each student gets to work with one another, constantly learning and growing together. As an undergraduate this is vital, to have the graduate students and a post-doc readily willing to help, serving as great mentors for us as well.”

Passionate about her work and about the fascinating lives of insects, Wadlington has worked with Dr. Weiss on educational outreach to a local elementary school. Wadlington and Weiss have guided observational learning over the course of a week in the classroom; Wadlington remembers leading the students in observing skipper caterpillars as well as teaching them the basics of an insect’s life cycle, body structure, and classification. The best part of the experience was when the children got to meet and touch the insects. “They loved touching and feeling insects they would otherwise be afraid of.” This work gave Wadlington “an extra bonus of spending time in my daughter’s classroom” while teaching about insects. Wadlington has since designed a week-long curriculum for young students, which she hopes to be able to use in a classroom in the future. “It teaches everything about plant-animal interactions from pollination, to learning, to life cycles.”

When she finishes at Georgetown, Wadlington intends to find work either in bio-informatics or in a molecular laboratory. Of her interest in bio-informatics, she says, “I would love to learn cutting edge computer science concepts associated with biology.”

Wadlington’s personal career dream is to return to behavioral biology, “spending years documenting and studying marine animals.”

When her attention is not otherwise biologically occupied, Wadlington is an enthusiastic fan of sports, both watching and playing. “Go Wizards and Nats!” she says of Washington, DC’s professional basketball and baseball teams.

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