Author: Angel Toasakul

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PCUR News

Welcome to the 2026-2027 Academic Year

A group picture of the correspondents. From left to right: Jamilah Araf ’29, Mai Tran ’29, Maya Cabrera ’27, Angel Toasakul ’27, Haya Elamir ’27, Gabriel Ascoli ’27, and Stanley Stoutamire ’27.
From left to right: Jamilah Araf ’29, Mai Tran ’29, Maya Cabrera ’27, Angel Toasakul ’27, Haya Elamir ’27, Gabriel Ascoli ’27, and Stanley Stoutamire ’27.

Welcome to another year with PCUR! To start the semester off, we already have many great posts lining up starting next week. Please stay tuned for our first post of the academic year and join us on the journey of reflection and exploration through Princeton undergraduate research.

Returning as Chief Correspondent, it is my great pleasure to welcome back our returning PCUR correspondents: Gabriel Ascoli ’27, Haya Elamir ’27, Aishah Shahid ’28, and Stanley Stoutamire ’27. I am also honored to introduce our new correspondents: Jamilah Araf ’29, Maya Cabrera ’27, and Mai Tran ’29.

Returning PCUR Correspondents

Gabriel Ascoli ’27 is a Classics major whose research spans from studying ancient Greek and Roman perspectives on death to researching cancer immunology and pediatric leukemia. He is interested in how these different fields can come together to better understand and help people.

Haya Elamir ’27 is a Molecular Biology major interested in cellular function and immunology. Her research has explored both cancer and the gut microbiome, driven by her interest in understanding disease at the cellular level and contributing to human health.

Aishah Shahid ’28 is an Electrical and Computer Engineering major interested in the intersection of technology and social impact. Her research has ranged from microwave cancer detection to local food systems and how they can better support underserved communities.

Stanley Stoutamire ’27 studies Medical Anthropology and is particularly interested in rural medicine and healthcare equity. His research and broader interests explore the ways health and medicine intersect with history, society, and the lives of different communities.

New PCUR Correspondents

Maya Cabrera ’27 is an Ecology and Evolutionary Biology major whose research focuses on the intersection of laboratory, field, and computational approaches to understand how organisms respond to environmental pressures. She has conducted studies across infections and microbiomes in bees and field research on tropical ecosystems.

Jamilah Araf ’29 is a Neuroscience major interested in developmental psychology and the ways young children learn. Through the Princeton Baby Lab, she studies the neural processes underlying language learning in toddlers, while also exploring the intersection of psychology and film.

Mai Tran ’29 is a Chemical and Biological Engineering major interested in materials science and energy. Her current research explores nanoporous materials for carbon capture and computational modeling, building on her earlier work on solid-state electrolytes for batteries.

PCUR Chief Correspondent

Hi again! My name is Angel Toasakul, and I am a senior in the neuroscience department. I am excited to return to PCUR this year as Chief Correspondent. Since sophomore year, when I first joined PCUR as a Natural Sciences Correspondent, I have been exploring my interests in memory and brain health research. Through my experiences in the Computational Memory Lab and brain-based educational outreach through founding Mobile Brain Lab, I have been particularly motivated to understand how research can make a meaningful difference in people’s lives through both discoveries and education.

Please visit our correspondents’ profiles to learn more about each correspondent and follow along with their work throughout the year.

— Angel Toasakul, Chief Correspondent

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Conduct Research Independent Work

Growing Up in the Same Lab

Members of the Norman Lab taking a group picture together
Norman Lab group picture

After the first meeting of the semester with my adviser, whom I’ve been working with since my first-year spring, I looked at the list of papers I had to read for my junior independent work but chose to open the small birthday card my adviser gave me on behalf of the lab. Seeing everyone’s “Happy Birthday” made me feel, more than ever before, like I belonged. 

And I was growing up.

I was energized, ready to take on a new responsibility. Since the conversation I had with my PI over the summer, I had been excited to get started. Coming into Princeton interested in memory and potential ways to manipulate unwanted or negative ones, getting to use eye trackers to exert top-down control over what people look at and induce forgetting by weakening the activation of the related pathways based on the eye gaze pattern seemed like a sci-fi movie coming to life. I couldn’t wait to feel ownership over my own project and contribute to the kind of work my lab cares so much about.

After two years, I started to feel like I was equipped to excel on all fronts at Princeton.

But reality… hit.

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Conduct Research Get Started with Research

The Making of a Researcher: Mentor First, Scientist Second

Professor Casey Lew-Williams playing with a toddler visiting the Baby lab.
Professor Casey Lew-Williams at the Princeton Baby Lab. Photo Credit: Princeton Office of Communications.

What does it take to become a researcher?

The Making of a Researcher is a new mini-series exploring the paths scientists take to reach where they are today, highlighting their growth from beginners to experts. 

Through interviews with faculty members in various fields, we’ll explore the necessary steps to becoming a researcher and how Princeton professors play a part in that process.

In this first feature, Professor Casey Lew-Williams, Chair of the Psychology Department and Director of the Princeton Baby Lab, reflects on his journey in developmental psychology and his role as a mentor to aspiring students in the field.

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Conduct Research Research Life

Research, Friends, Mountains, and Everything in Between

Neuschwanstein Castle
The view of the Neuschwanstein Castle on the way back from a 5-hour hike.

When I boarded my flight to Munich this summer, I thought I knew exactly what awaited me: labs buzzing with experiments and discoveries, even a big “Aha!” moment that would shape my research career. After spending over a month home in Thailand, beach hopping and exploring the underwater world with my scuba diving gear, I was ready to slip back into my academic shoes and make the most out of my time in a new country.

What I found was… not quite what I expected.

While I had overestimated how sparkly the research world would be, I didn’t even come close to imagining how many lessons I would learn or how many memories I would make.

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Conduct Research Get Started with Research

Cracking Cold Emails: Reaching Out to Professors in a Way that Works

Screenshot of the Princeton Computational Memory Lab that shows the main faculty, staff, and post-docs in the group.
“People” page of Princeton Computational Memory Lab

Cold-emailing a professor can feel like yelling into the void. You’ve pinpointed your field of interest, done the research on the lab and professor you want to work with, and yet—there’s so much uncertainty. You don’t know what the response will be, or if you’ll even get one at all. You don’t know if the void will yell back, or if your voice will simply disappear.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t maximize your chances. After crafting and sending a few emails, I started to see what actually makes a difference—and it’s not just about hitting “send.”

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Conduct Research Research Life

Research is Better with the Right Mentor—How I Found Mine

Glass brain plots
Glass brain plots from the data analysis of the project I’m working on with my mentor, who spends a couple hours every week going through the fundamentals of coding in neuroscience with me. When I started working with him, I didn’t even know I could make plots like these. Our weekly meetings paid off.

When I first came to Princeton, already interested in neuroscience research, I kept hearing about all the incredible opportunities available to undergraduates. Professors conducting groundbreaking neuroscience studies, cutting-edge labs filled with brilliant minds—it all sounded amazing. But as a first-year student, I had no idea how to actually get involved. Everyone seemed to know what they were doing, while I was stuck wondering: Where do I even start? Will a professor really take time to mentor someone like me? If I cold-email them, will they even read it?

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Conduct Research

Inside the Neuroscience Lab: How Core Lab is Shaping My Research Journey

This picture depicts the setup of crayfish dissection with the microscope positioned on top of the dissection, light source attached to the headstage on the right, and electrode coming in from the left.
Extracellular recording of crayfish nerve

For most STEM majors at Princeton, one of the requirements is a course known informally as Core Lab. This class aims to equip students with laboratory skills required to succeed as a scientist in the field. It is usually composed of two 3-hour labs and one lecture per week. As a neuroscience major, I am currently taking NEU 350: Laboratory in Principles of Neuroscience, a class designed to introduce students to modern methods of analyzing neural activity—from the level of single neurons to large-scale networks underlying cognition. The course covers a range of techniques, including intracellular and extracellular recordings, optogenetics, EEG, and fMRI. After weeks of conducting designed experiments, it culminates in an independent research project where students design and conduct their own experiments based on knowledge and skills learned throughout the semester.

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Research Life

Crafting Your Ideal Princeton Summer

Yellow/orange fireworks against a black night sky on Princeton's campus in summer 2024.
Fireworks on the 4th of July, taken at the closest firework show to campus this past summer

As a Princeton student, the possibilities for summer are exciting but can also feel overwhelming. Between research opportunities, internships, volunteering, and even traveling, it’s easy to feel like everyone around you is planning something impressive. But the key to a fulfilling summer isn’t about packing in as much as possible—it’s about finding what fits your personal goals and needs, whether that’s academic growth or much-needed rest.

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Conduct Research Research Life

Balancing Research and Academics: The Art of Course Planning

Screenshot of TigerJunction page with course planning template
A blank Tiger Junction page ready to be filled with the courses for next semester.

Planning your courses while doing research can feel like a juggling act—one that involves not just your academic requirements but also your research commitments and, of course, your own well-being. At a place like Princeton, where opportunities in labs and research projects abound, learning how to navigate and integrate everything into your schedule can make a huge difference. 

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Research Life

Navigating the Slump: When Even Your Passion Projects Get You Down

Empty corner of the Firestone Library with books lining the shelves and a table and lamp in the foreground.
A quiet corner of a library where you might find a new way to approach your project.

We all have those moments when we doubt where we’re headed, even when the path we’re on is one we chose with so much excitement. Maybe it’s that feeling of disconnect, where you can’t quite see why you’re doing what you’re doing—even if it’s the thing you used to call your dream. And when it comes to research, that slump can feel even more intense.

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