Introducing Reilly Durham, who recently joined the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) at the Prairie Research Institute. Armed with a Master’s in Integrative Biology and a Bachelor’s in Bioanthropology from the University of Illinois, Reilly's journey into sustainability began early on. Their role as a Scientific Specialist focuses on algal-bacterial bioaugmentation, aiming to revolutionize wastewater treatment and biofuel production. With a passion for understanding the intricate connections between organisms and their environments, Reilly navigates the complexities of their work with curiosity and determination. We recently sat down with Reilly to get to know them.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your role at ISTC?
I earned my Master’s in Integrative Biology last year and Bachelor’s in Bioanthropology, both from the University of Illinois. While working on my master’s degree this past year, I took a part-time job at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center as a graduate research assistant working on algal-bacterial bioaugmentation as a tool for using algae to treat wastewater. Some species of bacteria can produce growth-promoting chemicals that are beneficial to plants and algae. We want to harness that capability to improve algal growth for use as a wastewater treatment, and to then make biofuels from that algal biomass. Since then, I’ve become a Scientific Specialist on the project, helping to see our ideas and methods through to a couple field demonstration sites around the country.
What drew you to your particular area of work or study?
I’ve been interested in the environment and sustainability since grade school, so it was important to me to find a way to incorporate that into my career. Biology and the environment are the foundations for how the world of living things as we know it works. Integrative Biology shows the whole picture and how organisms and their environments are connected, while also seeing how those interactions affect the organisms.
I enjoy the journey of trying to understand how things work. My role allows me to see an experiment through from start to finish by designing, executing, monitoring, and evaluating the experiments, followed by an application of the results into actual field tests. Not only can we investigate the micro-interactions of the algae and bacteria, but we can also look at the system as a whole and see how the treatments we develop affect the rest of the system.
What tools are indispensable to your field, lab, or administrative work?
On my list of tools that I use daily in the lab would be sample tubes, a pipette, petri dishes, inoculation loops, and of course Excel to organize all my data.
What question do you get asked most frequently about your career?
Typically, people are just generally intrigued by what we do and want to hear more about how it works. Talking about ideas like our project and others at ISTC can get people thinking about how many different approaches there are to mitigate our climate crisis.
What advice would you give to those just starting out in your field?
Ask a lot of questions. There are lots of things I still don’t know that I want to find out. I try to learn as many new lab and technical skills as I can from coworkers, seminars, online workshops, etc. to diversify my skill range. I still feel like I learn something new every day!
What do you do in your free time (i.e., hobbies, family life, etc.)?
I enjoy caring for my plants, planning my next trip, and watching movies in my spare time. I try to spend as much time as I can with my five rescue cats, three of which are sisters from the same litter.
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Reilly can be found at One Hazelwood Drive, Champaign, IL, 61820 and can be reached at rdurham2@illinois.edu.
