Sierra Lopez: Undergraduate researcher, future veterinarian and brand new mom
Sierra Lopez is graduating from Utah State University this spring with a degree in conservation and restoration ecology, years worth of undergraduate research and a newborn baby.
Though Lopez is graduating with a degree in natural resources, her extensive undergraduate research has been in biochemistry, studying transgenic mice and vitamin deficiency.
Lopez presented this research at the USU Student Research Symposium on April 15, less than a week after giving birth.
“I had my presentation all ready to go basically,” Lopez said, “but then the baby came four weeks early and caught us by surprise.”
Lopez presented her research from the parking lot of the pediatrician’s office on Thursday after having her baby on Saturday.
“Presenting research is important,” Lopez said. “It’s important to me just because it’s a good learning experience, but it’s also important for the lab that I work for because we want to showcase our work.”
Though her research has nothing to do with her major, Lopez said that her research has prepared her for veterinary school, which she’ll begin this fall at USU.
Lopez has done her research in the lab of Mirella Meyer-Ficca, an assistant professor in the department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences. Meyer-Ficca said that Lopez “has become the driving force in this research project in our lab” since she began working there in September 2019.
Not only is Lopez hard-working and dedicated to her research, but Meyer-Ficca said Lopez “is the most helpful and caring colleague you can imagine.”
When some mice being used for a research project developed skin sores, Lopez would go in every day to treat the mice, up until the day she gave birth.
“She went in every day, even on the weekends, to treat them because she’s so compassionate and she feels so much for them,” Meyer-Ficca said.
No one had asked Lopez to go into the lab every day to help the mice. Meyer-Ficca learned that Lopez had been going in daily when Lopez asked her to cover for her the weekend she was giving birth.
“She cares so much, and I know she’s going to be such a wonderful veterinarian,” Meyer-Ficca said.
While studying at USU, Lopez also sat on the president’s cabinet, was involved with the Val R. Christensen Service Center as the director of the Student Nutrition Access Center, studied abroad in Botswana and participated in the Small Enterprise Education and Development program.
Outside of research, Lopez enjoys reading and hanging out with her husband, who she met at USU.
If there’s one thing Lopez has learned during her college experience, it’s to take advantage of opportunities.
“The more that you’re involved, the more doors open to you, and the more people you can connect with, the more opportunities you’ll have,” Lopez said. “I’ve just learned to, like, go out of my comfort zone and to talk to people, and just really, if there’s something that I want, I shouldn’t let anything stop me from getting it.”
Darcy Ritchie is a second-year journalism student at Utah State from Idaho Falls, Idaho. Outside of writing for the Statesman, she loves to DJ for Aggie Radio, eat french bread in the Walmart parking lot and tweet.
—darcy.ritchie@usu.edu
@darcyrrose