Alex Alexiev

Alex immigrated to the US with her family when she was three years old. Her parents left post-communist Bulgaria and moved to Santa Monica, California so she could have access to a good education and a wider variety of career opportunities. Though they worked very hard and lived in the city, they went out of their way to show Alex natural places, which first sparked her interest in biology. In college she became interested in microbes, and was fascinated with the idea that we could study a group of organisms we can’t even see through their genetics. With the help of great mentors, she made her way to graduate school where she now studies how bacterial and fungal interactions help toads survive deadly pathogens in Valerie McKenzie’s Lab. She aims to become a professor and graduate advisor, and plans to work to increase diversity in the biological sciences.