Autobiography
My name is Bryan Helm. I am currently a graduate student at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona seeking a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
I was born February 2, 1985 to Dr. Robert and Moira Helm. For a short while, I resided in Muncie, IN, but moved to Elwood, IN as a small child. Though memories of that period of my life are vague and gilded, I do remember much of the following 16 years spent growing up in Elwood. I have 2 younger brothers (age 20 and 16) and one younger sister (age 18). I attended YMCA pre-school and Elwood Kindergarden before beginning my primary education at Edgewood Elementary. I then attended junior high at Elwood Community Middle School, and high school at Elwood Community High School.
In high school, I was involved in many different activities, including concert and marching band, show choir, the golf team, the swimming team, Latin club, academic superbowl, and National Honor Society. I held a few part-time jobs in high school including working in a small family-owned grocery Linder's Dairy Store (later Taylor's Dairy Store), and I was fortunate enough to spend one summer working as a life guard at the Elwood City Pool. Being a young man from a small rural community, I also worked as a de-tassler in Tipton County. On a part-time basis I worked as a receptionist at Elwood Family Medicine for my father.
I graduated from Elwood Community High School with Academic Honors Diploma in the Spring of 2003. In the fall of that same year, I started my first semester as an undergraduate at DePauw University. I am currently a Biology major and have met the requirements for a minor in Latin. While attending DePauw I have become involved in several activities and organizations including Sigma Nu Fraternity International, Information Technology Associates Program, Science Research Fellows, Community Conduct Council, and the DePauw Tiger Pep Band.
My future plans include finishing up my time at DePauw in strong academic standing, and then next fall will be attending graduate school at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. My dissertation ideas are not settled though most likely will revolve around invertabrate physiology, population genetics, and ecology. There will be more on my research interests under the "Biology" section of the website, but my current areas of study lie in Genetics, Population Genetics, Ecology and Evolution. More specifically I'm interested in the growth of holometabolous organisms, or organisms that undergo complete metamorphoses.