Community and Connection in Research

Although I’ve always been certain that I want to study something in the sciences, I wasn’t always interested in research. I had never met anyone who did scientific research before coming to Duke, so the specifics of what happens in research labs were a bit of a mystery to me. Over time I became more and more curious about what a career working in a lab would actually consist of, and started to look for ways to get involved, which ended up leading me to BSURF! Since arriving at Duke, and even this first week, I’ve been able to strip away some of that mystery as I have met so many people who do research as a career, as well as other students interested in pursuing a career in research.


I’m definitely looking forward to getting some hands-on experience this summer, and hopefully learning some technical skills that I can put to use during my research experience at Duke and in the future. Although I had already worked with my research mentor before this summer, I am really excited to work on a plan that I will be involved in from the very start! Working in Dr. Ru-Rong Ji’s lab has been an amazing experience so far, and I’m thrilled to be able to work there on a daily basis. Beyond the actual research that I’ll be doing, I’m also particularly interested in meeting more researchers and learning more about the various labs at Duke, in order to make connections and really explore the research community as a whole.

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