Emadch Beck ’01 recalls the days when, as an undergraduate, she was struggling with organic chemistry. She had a summer job with the late Dr. D. John Faulkner at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and turned to him for advice. He responded:
“A female student goes into her professor’s office and says, ‘Professor, I would do anything to get a better grade in your class.’ The professor looks at her for a moment and then leans towards her and says in a lowered tone, ‘Anything?’ There is a brief pause and then a nervous nod from the student. The professor sits back and says, ‘Even study?'”
Whenever she gets bogged down or overwhelmed, she remembers this joke and chuckles. Then she gets back to work. Emadch is now researching the Indo-Pacific parrotfish towards a Master of Science degree at James Cook University in Australia. Parrotfish are an important part of coral reef assemblages, Emadch explains. Because of their functional roles as bioeroders and algal grazers, they are considered by some to be a keystone species in their ecosystems.
Emadch’s fascination with marine biology comes naturally. Her family is originally from Palau, in Micronesia, where she spent the first six years of her life. Comprised of limestone coral reefs, the island is, in some places, still a pristine tropical marine environment.
At Scripps, she majored in biology and admits she was at first a bit lost academically. “Biology was not my forte, and after my first-semester grades, I didn’t think I was going to make it in science.” She switched to linguistics for one semester, then gave science one more try. She took tutoring sessions and even attended multiple sessions of a chemistry lecture—one, to take notes, and one, to just listen and absorb. “I’m glad I stuck with it because I wouldn’t be here today if I had taken the easy way out,” she says.
Emadch (or Emma as the Australians call her) wants to return to Palau someday as a marine biologist and apply her knowledge as a researcher and as a role model for tomorrow’s scientists. “It seems only right that I give back to a country that has given me so much.”