Lab Research

To Ph.D. or Not to Ph.D.: An Interview with Microbiology Ph.D. Candidate Ciara Sanders

Posted on November 22, 2024November 11, 2024 by Haya Elamir

Showing the person I interviewed to add a face to the name and words

Headshot of Ciara Sanders, Ph.D. student. Photo credit: Ciara Sanders.

For this post, I decided to ask third-year Ph.D. student Ciara Sanders in Dr. Brooks Lab here at Princeton about her experience in molecular biology graduate school. She hails from California and is currently carrying out microbiology research for her Ph.D. For students considering molecular biology research/Ph.D. as a career, these questions may help answer any concerns you have, especially since medical school seems to be the popular option for molecular biology majors.

Harmonizing Research and A Cappella: How Music Fuels My Scientific Journey

Posted on November 18, 2024October 28, 2024 by Nathan Nguyen

Photo of the members of the Princeton Footnotes in the year 2024-2025, taken at Rocky courtyard — *Photo of the Footnotes, Princeton’s fresh low-voice a cappella group founded in 1959*

Imagine standing in front of a big audience, heart racing, ready to blend your voice with others and hit the notes of an intricate a cappella arrangement. Every beat, every breath, is crucial. Every time I stand on stage or under an arch with my a cappella group, the Princeton Footnotes, I think of how similar singing and music feels to what I do in the lab. You might be thinking that singing in an a cappella group and doing research are worlds apart. However, these two passions have formed a bond in ways that I never believed possible. In fact, the creativity, collaboration, and discipline I have channeled in being a part of the Footnotes have made me a better researcher—and vice versa.

A Quick Guide to Securing Funding

Posted on November 13, 2024October 25, 2024 by Rebecca Cho

This photo shows a student working in lab with his mentor. — *A student working in a lab, potentially on a research project for their senior work that would greatly benefit from funding! Photo credit: Nick Donnoli.*

You’ve brainstormed a great idea for your research project. You have the details of your topic all figured out, but you need some assistance with figuring out the logistics of the financial aspects that come with your great idea.

If that’s you, here’s a quick guide on one way of securing funding as a Princeton student!

More than Just Building Toy Cars: A Conversation with Jeremy Kiil ’24 about Car Lab

Posted on November 6, 2024October 21, 2024 by Alexis Wu

Portrait of a young man with short brown hair, a blue checkered dress shirt, smiling warmly at the camera in front of Nassau Hall. — Jeremy Kiil is an alum from the Class of 2024 who majored in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He now works as a power engineer at Qualcomm in Raleigh, NC. While at Princeton, he was a member of Princeton Racing Electric, a worship leader in Princeton Christian Fellowship, and Vice President of Colonial Club.

At Princeton, I’ve formed close friendships with students across all years and departments, witnessing their challenges, hard work, and achievements, from difficult courses to their independent work and senior theses. When my friends often name-drop courses from their departments and share exciting insights from their day, I realize I haven’t taken many of those classes myself. This realization sparked a desire to generate deeper conversations about their academic interests, even if I don’t fully grasp all the technical details and concepts of their field.

One of these conversations was with Jeremy Kiil ‘24 about his experience in ‘Car Lab’ (formally, ECE 302: Robotics and Autonomous Systems Lab), a required course for all ECE juniors. To my surprise, our conversation wasn’t focused on the nitty-gritty details about hardware components. Instead, Jeremy shared insights applicable to all students. I found his advice on making consistent progress, staying resilient, and taking care of oneself as wonderful reminders for everyone. Inspired by our conversation, I wanted to document and share it with a broader audience.

Choosing A Lab: To Stay or To Go?

Posted on October 28, 2024October 21, 2024 by Rebecca Cho

Photo meant to show students in a laboratory setting. — *Students collaborating in a molecular biology laboratory. Photo credit: Matt Raspanti.*

Many students at Princeton spend their summers exploring a research project or a lab internship in their field of interest. But what’s next? Maybe you really enjoyed your experience and wanted to continue. Then, you come across the question: should I stay in the same lab or join a different lab?

This was the question I pondered when entering my sophomore year. I had an incredible summer experience as an High Meadows Environmental Institute intern in the Sigman Research Laboratory in the summer of 2023. I worked on a project that enabled my exploration of biogeochemical reconstruction via an investigation of the marine environment during a historical mass extinction through the use of a biological proxy known as foraminifera. But, where did I want to go from there? If you’re in a similar position, here are some things to keep in mind!

Mystery Writers in Research Labs: How to Analyze Your Data

Posted on October 25, 2024October 25, 2024 by Haya Elamir

The image is to depict a study corner in the Trustee Reading Room to add the feel of a study session to the post since it is about analyzing data. — *Trustee Reading Room, Firestone Library*. *Photo credit: Matt Raspanti*.

“So what does this data mean?” My professor asked, looking at me expectantly. What does the data mean? “What does this data tell you about the cancer cells?” If he thought rephrasing it made it any better, it didn’t. I am not quite sure what I said to save face (and frankly, I really do not want to remember), but I must have said something because my professor just nodded. “When you look at your data, I want you to create a story. It may be a mystery, but then you’d be providing a certain set of clues.”

It is very easy to get caught up in generating data, especially if the data is particularly tricky and you’re concerned about making sure it looks right, generating the right graphs, having the right axes, numbers and titles. It can be a headache. By the time the graphs are done, I would rather not look at it anymore or think too hard about the numbers. However, as lab reports and analysis questions stack up for our classes, it becomes prudent to know how to analyze these graphs. While I am not a seasoned veteran, I have a few tips that helped me approach these types of situations.

Exploring Memory: My First-Year Research Experience

Posted on October 18, 2024October 18, 2024 by Angel Toasakul

The picture shows Dr. Augustin Hennings and I in the MRI control room on the C Level of Princeton Neuroscience Institute. We were monitoring the screens in one of the pilot scans. — *Dr. Augustin Hennings and I in the MRI control room, C Level, PNI*

It felt a little odd to begin an email with, “I wrote about your lab in my application to Princeton!” but it was the truth. Since high school, I had been fascinated by memory and its profound effects on shaping our lives, which motivated me to pursue a degree in neuroscience. Professor Kenneth Norman’s work in the Princeton Computational Memory Lab captured my attention while I was exploring Princeton’s resources for my application essays. I wrote about how I wanted to be a part of the lab and study human memory, specifically focusing on how the brain and mind can overcome the emotional consequences of trauma-based memories. After arriving at Princeton, I had been eagerly awaiting the right time to reach out to Professor Norman about getting involved in his research.

Surf’s Up: A Guide to Internet Surfing, and other Assorted Browsing Research Skills

Posted on October 16, 2024October 16, 2024 by Advik Eswaran

This image depicts a Google search of "What is research," which symbolizes the purpose of this post—i.e. figuring out how to research online. — *What is research? Perhaps we can ask the Internet…*

If you’re anything like me, you first thought that “research” essentially amounted to surfing the Internet. Back in the glory days of middle school, “research” meant the rewarded privilege of getting to use the laptop carts, productively using class time on googling information about our various project topics (and definitely not secretly playing games). Now, as the mature, worldly college student you now are, perhaps you think you know better. “True” academic research, the clever reader now knowingly tells themselves, is historians dusting through archival documents and scientists mixing frothy chemicals in the lab.

Yet there’s a missing part here: a crucial element that takes us back to our elementary and middle days of excited googling. To make any significant intellectual contribution to any field, one first has to understand the current state of knowledge in that same field. To borrow the term favored by the Writing Program, we need to understand the scholarly conversation. How do we know if we’re making a contribution to something, if we don’t understand what that something is? Understanding the current state of research in a given field is a crucially important skill—really, a prerequisite—for conducting your own effective research in that field.

Mentorship Matters: A Summer of Research and Growth

Posted on October 14, 2024October 14, 2024 by Nathan Nguyen

This image shows a lab technician pipetting a clear solution into an another orange-colored solution inside a fume hood in a lab — *Photo of a chem-bioengineering lab, photo credit to Iris Rubinstein.*

When I first walked into the lab this summer, I thought research was all about running experiments and gathering data. What I didn’t expect was how much the people around me—the mentorship and the shared triumphs and failures—would shape so much of my learning and how I view scientific research.

Starting a research position at a bioengineering lab over the summer was really intimidating for me, especially as an undergraduate. At the start, I felt like the most inexperienced person in a room full of graduate students, postdocs, and faculty who seem to have it all figured out. Although I’ve learned or at least seen a lot of the quantitative and qualitative components in my Chemical and Biological Engineering course, I did not have much hands-on experience and critical thinking that comes with actually doing experiments. That’s when I realized how big of a role a mentor plays.

Research Insights Series: An Interview with Gemma M. Sahwell

Posted on May 10, 2024May 9, 2024 by Rebecca Cho

An image of Gemma Sahwell — *Gemma M. Sahwell*
*PhD Candidate, Princeton University, Department of Geosciences*

As a Geosciences major, I am fascinated by ocean biogeochemical cycling and reconstruction of past climates and marine environments by way of biological proxies. Yet, I have also found myself intrigued in environmental movements and storytelling, particularly with the narratives of the land histories of indigenous communities in the backdrop of anthropogenic climate change and U.S. colonial history.

With growing interest in both fields, I enrolled in Professor Allison Carruth’s ENV238: Environmental Movements: From Wilderness Protection to Climate Justice. Here, with luck, I met an incredible preceptor who shed some light on the interdisciplinary nature of her research and inspired me to delve deeper into my own multifaceted interests.

A PhD candidate student in the Geosciences department, Gemma M. Sahwell is currently a member of both the Blue Lab and the Higgins Research Laboratory. Curious, I reached out to her to see if I could speak with her a bit about her research.

Join me below to hear about her experience.

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