Forensic biologist and Southeastern assistant professor of biological sciences, Erin Watson-Horzelski traveled to Washington, D.C. on April 27-28 to participate in the USA Science and Engineering Festival.
Her exhibit, “Maggot Monet,” featured a general introduction to the life cycle of insects and the importance of their role in nature. They were also able to learn about how living organisms interact with the live maggots.
Visitors at the “Maggot Monet” booth were able to walk away with a painting made by maggots moving through non-toxic Crayola paints. Her goal was to keep guests at her exhibit engaged in biology, while highlighting her research and the university.
“I like working with maggots because everyone is so grossed out by them,” said Watson-Horzelski. “By the time they left the booth, they were thrilled about maggots. It was a fabulous platform to profile our state and university.”
She represented the university well as the only biologist from Louisiana.
“We’re extremely appreciative that the university wanted to participate,” she said. “There were an estimated 150,000 participants in the two day expo. However, Southeastern was the only representation from Louisiana. We were constantly busy, keeping people interested from 10 to 15 minutes. We had many people stop by our booth. It’s really, really cool to get other people to understand why they are valuable.”
Watson-Horzelski grew up in Seattle, Wash., and always knew she wanted to pursue a career in biology.
“Since I was a little kid I knew I would do something with biology,” said Watson-Horzelski. “I started out wanting to be a veterinarian.”
Watson-Horzelski also enjoys doing research on predatory beetles that appear at crime scenes, and it is one of the projects at Southeastern that she is most excited about. She is also a local law enforcement and FBI consultant who uses research to aid homicide investigation through maggots, whose presence can help estimate the date of a homicide.
“Once we have controlled data published and accepted people will reference our work and research that I’ve done at Southeastern, and that’s exciting and really cool,” said Watson-Horzelski. “I am also doing research on how insects feed on tissue, stages of decay on that tissue and change in the microbial community in the top soil beneath the decomposing body.”
In addition to biology, she teaches human anatomy and loves human bones. She enjoys seeing students enter her class with regret and finish engaged in science and longing for more.
“When I tell them what we’re going to do at the beginning of the semester they’re rolling their eyes and wondering why they enrolled in the class, but at the end they’re in knee deep,” she added. “It’s really neat to see that ‘ah ha.'”
Watson-Horzelski enjoys her biology studies and plans to attend the festival for a third time next year. She believes that biology relates to everyone whether or not they are interested.
“Everybody can relate to biology, even if your career takes you somewhere different,” said Watson-Horzelski. “I would encourage people to take time and take a trip up there. It’s a phenomenal festival. Everything is there, and it’s absolutely free.”