Alumna wins regional graduate student award

Jaycie Fickle earns top STEM award from Western Association of Graduate Schools

By California State University, Bakersfield

January 20^th, 2022

The work Jaycie Fickle did as a biology graduate student at California State University, Bakersfield has already earned her a master’s degree, the title of Outstanding Graduate Student for the School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering, and five peer-reviewed publications.

Now, Fickle has received another top honor, with the Western Association of Graduate Schools and ProQuest choosing her to receive their 2021-2022 Distinguished Master’s Award in STEM Disciplines. Fickle and her research, titled "Xylem structure and hydraulic function in the roots and stems of chaparral shrub species occurring at high and low elevation sites in the southern Sierra Nevada, California, USA,” will be recognized at a virtual awards ceremony in March.

“I was shocked to be chosen for the Distinguished Master’s award,” Fickle said. “I was unaware of how large the pool of applicants was, so I am very honored to be receiving it.”

Out of 50-plus students from more than 20 universities in the western United States, Fickle was chosen for the award for STEM disciplines, one of four categories in which WAGS and ProQuest honor graduate student research.

Fickle, who graduated in the summer of 2020, studied five different chaparral shrub species in two different sites in the Lake Isabella area: a lower-elevation site that experiences hotter temperatures and less precipitation, and a cooler and wetter higher-elevation site. She expected the xylem (the water conducting tissue that forms the “wood” of trees and shrubs) at the two sites to have structural differences but found they did not. Rather than making structurally different tissue, plants altered how much tissue they produced. This resulted in shrubs in the more drought-stressed site needing to produce more wood to support and hydraulically supply their leaves.

“I found that different species used diverse strategies to cope with highly seasonal stressors,” Fickle explained. “Additionally, I looked at roots and stems and found roots to be more efficient at water transport, yet more vulnerable to dehydration. Doing studies of roots on plants in their natural environments are exceptionally time intensive due to the nature of collecting the samples.”

Through her work, Fickle studied an area regularly hit hard by extreme drought. Her research aims to understand the ways plants respond to drought, which in turn will help her fellow scientists foresee and alleviate the negative effects of climate change on such plants.

The Bakersfield native, who also earned her bachelor’s degree in biology at CSUB in 2018, is now earning her doctorate in biology at the University of Utah. Her current research is related to the work she did at CSUB but is taking her in new directions: though continuing to work on xylem, her lab there does a lot of work with computer models, so she’s taking advantage of the chance to learn new things.

Now in her second year, she’s found her place in the doctoral program but acknowledged the first year was tough because of COVID. Still, she made the most of her time.

“Luckily, we take most of our classes our first year, so I spent a lot of time cooped up in my apartment doing online classes,” she said. “The summer was very rewarding because I got to do field work in places I have never been before – I added three new states to my travel list. I have also done both research assistant work and teaching assistant work and I have enjoyed both.”

Coming to CSUB as a freshman, Fickle had planned to eventually pursue becoming a veterinarian, a lifelong dream of hers. However, she found, as many college students do, that one class opened up a new world of possibilities. As a biology major, she had to take an introductory plant science course, which she said was difficult and initially discouraging because she knew nothing about plants. Despite this, she was determined to earn good grades, even in this class.

“It turned out the more I studied plants, the more I grew to like them and enjoyed the challenge,” she said. “I was very excited to attend lectures and participate in the labs. My growing enthusiasm for the class must have been apparent, because Dr. Jacobsen noticed that I seemed interested and invited me to work in her lab. Working in Dr. Jacobsen and Dr. Pratt’s labs was a life-changing experience, and I would not be on the path I am now without their influence.”

Biology professors Dr. Anna Jacobsen and Dr. Brandon Pratt both worked with Fickle throughout her time at CSUB. Fickle joined the graduate program in the fall of 2018 as part of the National Science Foundation Center for Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) program, through which she worked not only with fellow biology students and scientists but those from other scientific disciplines as well.

“Jaycie is incredibly talented academically, she is a highly capable student and scientist and she was a wonderful member of my laboratory,” Dr. Jacobsen wrote in her nomination letter. “Through her own research, she was able to mentor other undergraduate and graduate students, demonstrate scientific skills and time management and be an inspiration to the students following her.”

Though Fickle has done exceptionally well throughout her studies, the honor from the WAGS and ProQuest still came as a surprise to her. The biology program at CSUB wasn’t always easy for her, and she credits her success, in part, to not being afraid to ask “dumb” questions (“If I don’t know something, then that’s great, because I am here to learn,” she said). At times, she struggled with imposter syndrome, and she was recently diagnosed with OCD, which can be debilitating in times of high stress. Through this, she’s learned to give herself grace and persevere. Going through this with a group as supportive as the CSUB biology department helped immensely.

“I absolutely loved my time at CSUB!” Fickle said. “I really miss everyone from the biology department. The size of the department is perfect, and I feel like it was very important for me as a graduate student to get the chance to interact with everyone. It is such a supportive environment, which helped me grow as a researcher and gain my confidence.”