Erin Cafferty

PhD Candidate

Erin spent the first ten years of her life in New Jersey, after which she moved to North Carolina, where she spent the rest of her formative years. While she does not have an accent, you can tell she is from NJ from the colorful way she describes her failed experiments or computational struggles.

She attended Western Carolina University, where she received a B.S. in Molecular Biology, becoming the first in her family to do so. While there, Erin discovered a novel bacteriophage with the help of HHMI's SEA-PHAGES program, which inspired her love of virology and science outreach. She continued her undergraduate research under Dr. Maria Gainey, identifying repressor genes in cluster M bacteriophages.

After her undergraduate education, Erin moved to Salt Lake City to pursue a PhD at the University of Utah. She joined the Elde lab in 2020 to study poxviral evolutionary strategies with a particular interest in viral mimic proteins. Coincidentally, Erin started her thesis work at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a time rampant with misinformation from self-proclaimed virology experts. This experience solidified Erin's passion for science communication. Today, she strives to make science accessible, informative, and fun through her writings and illustrations. See examples of her work here: https://www.erinrcafferty.com

Erin does not ski, snowboard, or rock climb, which is unusual for someone living in Utah. Instead, she enjoys the state's natural beauty by hiking, camping, and painting watercolor landscapes. She stays current on the local culture by watching The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.