Cordelia Forkpah

Laboratory Technician, The Werren Lab

You work in a laboratory.  What are you currently researching?

I am currently working in the Werren Lab as a lab technician so apart from working to keep the lab going, I am working on finding the genetic differences in learning and aggregation behavior in Nasonia, a kind of wasp.

What was it that originally sparked your interest in biology?

I grew up in Ghana and in the house we had chickens, goats, sheep, a pond full of frogs, cats, and dogs - but my favorite were the ants who seemed to have marching orders every day. I liked watching them go about their day, so I was very glad when my middle school science teacher told me I could do that as a job one day. So here I am trying to figure out the behavior of the wasp.

What do you enjoy most about working here at the U of R? 

The people are very nice and very friendly. The students I work with are also very amazing.

What’s the most important thing that you’ve learned working here and/or studying biology? 

There is a bottomless pit of things to learn, almost every day. 

How do you unwind when you’re not in the lab? 

I like making up recipes. It's really nice when something tasty is created and a learning experience when I learn things that cannot be paired together.