COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 21 ultimately set them up for long-term success. BOGS worked to improve the student experience in the department. The organization also launched a series of professional development workshops that opened collaboration opportunities and gave graduate students a platform to practice presentations and build various skill sets. “My time focused on helping the graduate student experience in biological sciences— hearing the voices of the students and taking it back to the faculty and administration. For instance, improving study spaces and offices. We want to prop up our graduate students to help them be as successful as they can be.” Next, Seaver will begin a postdoctoral position at Lehigh in the lab of geneticist Wynn Meyer. Part of his job will be setting up the wet lab and doing some computational experiments. “It’s a shift in what I’ve been working on—more genomics and doing more computational work. Along with my experience in biochemistry and molecular biology, their lab has been working to validate some of their output of their computational work by doing wet lab work,” he explains. Though Seaver’s career at Lehigh got off to a shaky start, it’s been a great experience, he says. “It’s been excellent to work with the faculty inside and outside the department. I feel I’ve been set up well for a career in biology going forward.” ● other experiences, has taught me that everyone learns and picks things up differently,” he says. His interest in zebrafish research began during his undergraduate years at the International Zebrafish Center in Eugene, Ore. “I got exposed to the fundamental aspects of zebrafish, so when I came to Lehigh, I hit the ground running. That was one draw for the research,” he explains. He was also attracted to the work in Iovine’s lab. “The lab focuses on molecular biology and biochemistry at a very precise level—examining how key proteins and genetic factors function and their broader effects on the body,” he says. Seaver is trying to solve, a single issue in a meticulous, focused way. Lehigh has given him the room and resources to conduct research in a way that suits him, he says. “To be able to come in and understand what one specific thing is doing and how it contributes to the whole—it was a really good fit,” he says. Seaver has also left his mark at Lehigh in other ways. He served as president of the Biological Organization of Graduate Students (BOGS) after serving as treasurer. His tenure as president was slightly less demanding than his term as treasurer in 2020, at the height of COVID and a period of tremendous uncertainty. As president, his focus shifted to day-to-day concerns and working environments of biology graduate students to The Iovine lab studies regeneration of the zebrafish fin skeleton. CHRISTINE KRESCHOLLEK Alexander Seaver
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