Kim Wardle Profile
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Kim Wardle
Undergraduate Student, Study Abroad
Kim Wardle has been fascinated by infectious diseases since she was 12 years old, when she read her first (of many) books about zombies. After turning to biology to learn more about infections, she realized the impressive but devastating impact of viruses and bacteria on human and animal hosts, and set out to become a scientist.
Nine years later, she is a third-year undergraduate student from the University of Surrey in Guilford, UK, where she is studying microbiology. She first met Sid Thakur at a global health conference in the UK, and eager to gain research experience in the US, she applied for a one-year study abroad position in his lab and joined the team in August 2018.
In the Thakur lab, she is participating in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance projects and learning how to handle and study different bacterial pathogens. As well as bacterial cultures, agar slants and DNA isolation, she plans to explore library preparation and whole genome sequencing throughout the year.
When she returns to the UK to complete the final year of her undergraduate degree, she wants to focus on virology, particularly hemorrhagic viruses and reservoir conditions. After her degree, she hopes to go to graduate school to study infectious diseases and epidemiology, and eventually become an independent researcher who tracks the spread of infectious diseases worldwide.