Student Profile: Jodie Stone
Jodie Stone graduated in 2025 from the University of Georgia with a double major in biology and music. Both programs are based the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.
Her last academic year also marked Stone’s second stint working in the Industrial Microbiology Laboratory, under the direction of Dr. H. Travis Ichikawa, at the UGA New Materials Institute. The laboratory team focuses on sustainable production of biopolymers, including recovery and reuse of processed water.
Stone talked to us about her experiences working at the UGA NMI and her future goals.
How did you become interested in studying materials science?
I’ve always been interested in how different sciences affect each other in the real world because I feel like when you actually study the different sciences in depth, they all overlap with each other and build upon each other. This is why I’m pursuing a biology degree because I think biology is just the integration and application of all the harder sciences like physics, chemistry, and math. I think materials science is very similar in that you need to have a good understanding of and foundation in the individual sciences to be able to integrate them in your research.
Provide some details on your specific area of interest.
My area of interest is primarily genetics and the aspects of projects that relate to genetics. I initially chose this area because DNA is easily preserved, and I needed flexibility to accommodate my extremely variable schedule as a music major. My first project had to do with creating a tool for measuring translational efficiency and my current project has to do with genetically identifying a culture of ciliates.
If you wish, please share with us a rewarding experience related to your work at the NMI.
When I first came to the UGA NMI my first year, I hadn’t taken any science courses except my AP Biology class and Physics 1, so I was very unfamiliar with lab techniques and the scientific process in general. My amazing professor Dr. H. Travis Ichikawa painstakingly taught me everything I know, but it was difficult for both of us because of my lack of knowledge and general understanding of the purpose of what I was doing day-to-day. I decided to come back two years later in order to satisfy my degree requirement and also to take another crack at being involved in research. It’s been very rewarding to see my own personal growth with my research and being able to take on more responsibility within the project. Now, Dr. Ichikawa is able to trust me with deciding more aspects of the course of the project rather than having just to tell me what to do.
How has your experience with the New Materials Institute influenced your academic trajectory or career goals?
When I first came to the UGA NMI, I was still not sure about my major and what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to study science, but I didn’t know if I wanted to change to a more “interesting” degree like Biomedical Physiology or if I wanted to drop the biology major to a minor and focus on my music degree. After being in the lab, I understood the importance of getting a science education and participating in scientific research as a part of obtaining a degree in the sciences. Doing research has made me grow in my ways of thinking and approaching problems that have benefitted me in other areas of my life, like my music. I decided to keep my biology degree so that I could come back to the lab and benefit from a complete scientific education.
Describe a project or research you’ve worked on related to the UGA NMI.
I’ve worked on two projects within the Industrial Microbiology Laboratory at the UGA NMI. The first project I worked on during my freshmen year was trying to transform plasmids containing a GFP green fluorescence protein expressing gene and an mNeptune red protein expressing gene and inducing mutations into a genetic sequence linking the two to measure how the specific mutations affect the expression of the more downstream gene.
The project I’m working on now is genetically identifying a culture of cloned ciliates. This project is part of a larger project studying the movement and behaviors of the ciliates in response to environmental factors. I’ve always been interested in genetic research projects because it’s kind of like a puzzle and through studying and sequencing the genome of these ciliates I am contributing potentially undiscovered data to science. It’s really cool to be a part of the community of people studying and identifying ciliates from all over the world.
What challenges have you faced in your work, and how have you overcome them?
My biggest challenge is balancing my time between being in lab, music, studying for the MCAT, and my other classes. I work through this by communicating with my professors and letting them know what I need. My viola professor, Maggie Snyder of the UGA Hugh Hodgson School of Music, has been very understanding of my increased commitments this semester and she has always been very supportive of my being a double major. Dr. Ichikawa has also always been very supportive of my commitments outside of the laboratory.
How do you see your work at the UGA NMI contributing to global sustainability efforts?
My project is part of an effort to create an alternative method of wastewater treatment that uses microbes to purify the water instead of chemicals. I think this could reduce the need for chemicals in the water supply and create a sustainable way to treat wastewater.
What skills have you gained from working at the UGA NMI that you believe will be the most valuable in your future career?
I think being in a collaborative, science focused environment has taught me how to work with others in a scientific capacity. Leading an aspect of a larger project has also taught me leadership. The most valuable thing I have learned is how to bounce back after setbacks, whether they be my own fault or just coincidence. Research has highs and lows, and it can be easy to get emotionally invested in your project, but sometimes mistakes can happen, or you can get results that aren’t what you hoped, and you need to be able to pick yourself up and go back to the drawing board. Not having the outcome you want can be very frustrating, but I have learned how to not let my emotions affect my decision making. As a pre-medical student, I think this is a very important lesson to learn and will help me to be rational when making decisions that can be very emotionally intense in the future.
What advice would you give to other students interested in being involved with the NMI?
I would say that a student who wants to be involved with the UGA NMI should focus on their core science classes and make sure that they have a strong foundation in the sciences if they want to do materials research. Being involved in research is different from academic classes where if you fail an exam, it only affects you. In research, your project could be part of a larger project and whether or not you get results can affect the work of people who rely on the research for their livelihoods, so you need to be able to take on the responsibility of conducting the best research that you can.
Is there anything we haven’t asked that you’d like to share with us?
I think that it’s important to be well rounded in your interests when you’re pursuing an extremely science focused degree and career. Being involved in the arts has helped me get out of my own head and provided me with perspective when science becomes too much. Studying music has helped me develop my critical thinking skills and creativity that I can apply to my research. I think that science students should be encouraged to academically engage with the arts in order to maintain a perspective on the world outside of science and to become more well-rounded individuals. The world of music theory, music history, and music performance are rich academic landscapes that I feel have equal importance to the world as scientific research and instruction.