Barbara Nelson, Gleaner Writer

Davia Hudson-Holness in the lab. - Contributed

Although Davia Hudson-Holness spent the summer and fall of 2005 as an instructor in chemistry and teaching assistant to undergraduates in Florida, she does not plan to become a teacher.

Instead, the University of the West Indies (UWI) graduate is now preparing for her Ph.D. in forensic chemistry at Florida International University (FIU) and has great ideas about working with drug dogs.

"I do a lot of canine work," she said. "I'm really trying to find out how dogs identify people."

The title of her dissertation is 'Variables affecting the Collection and Preservation of Human Scent Components through Instrumental and Biological Evaluations'. She expects to complete her Ph.D. in May of 2008.

Davia attended Glenmuir High School in Jamaica before she went to the UWI in 1999. She graduated in 2002 with an upper second class Honours (double major in chemistry and applied chemistry). In 2004, she entered FIU starting out in the master's programme before switching to the Ph.D. programme.

She worked as a summer intern in 2001 and 2002 at JAMALCO in Jamaica, as a chemical analyst at Envirodyne Inc. in Florida and as a laboratory technologist at the Sugar Industry Research Institute in Jamaica.

Considerable experience

Since coming to FIU, she has gained considerable experience; for example, in the summer of 2005, she worked as an instructor in chemistry.

"Every summer, they take in high school students to prepare them for their next year," she explained. That experience prepared her for teaching undergraduates in the fall that year.

"I found teaching the undergraduates a bit more challenging!" she confessed.

She has been a research assistant since spring 2006 and this includes collaborating with the Netherlands National Police on research findings and canine field results. She really loves doingresearch!

Davia has been busy giving presentations in places as far as Seattle, Washington, Orlando, Florida, and Helsinki, Finland, in 2006. In fact, she gave five presentations in 2006.

She recalls that it was quite an unusual experience for her when she went to Helsinki, the second northernmost capital in the world. It was th of summer and, in that city at just over 60 degrees north latitude, "the sun never set. I could hardly fall asleep at 'night'," she said.

Different culture

She found the culture in Finland very different from what she is accustomed to. For instance, working days are much shorter there. So far, Davia has given two presentations this year and two coming up later.

She is a member of the Delta Epsilon Iota Academic Honor Society. This society was established for the purpose of identifying and encouraging undergraduate scholars whose "dedication, enthusiasm and initiative distinguish them as models of achievement, leadership and service".

The society promotes lifetime career development, supports student-initiated chapter development and reserves a significant portion of organisational revenue for scholarship awards.