I must say that all of the seminars so far during this program have been an absolute delight. I do have my favorites but I didn’t dread any of them. What I really loved about some of the talks is how down-to-earth the speakers were. Here I am, a measly little undergrad, sitting down before Dr. Such-and-such and trying to comprehend the complexities of their research. These are (probably) some of the most renowned people in their respective fields, but they talked to us as if we were friends having a cup of coffee together; the intimacy is what I loved about most of the seminars.
Amongst the levelheaded narratives of their high school and college days was research and interesting information. I feel that Dr. Noor was able to balance his research and his background very well during his seminar which is why I am picking his to reflect on. Besides all the Drosophila talk, Dr. Noor gave amazing advice that he should definitely include in a book for undergrads considering research if he were ever to write one. He emphasized that we shouldn’t place our self-worth on our experiments. I’m sure that it’s easy to look at everything going on in the scientific world and think “Man I’m here working with rats but I wish I could be studying something trendy like cancer research.” The thing is that your research is going to be beneficial to some degree in some field and research is chalk-full of unsung heroes. He also suggested that we should balance high-risk experiments with “safe” experiments. This really appealed to me because it seems that research is all about the high-risk when you’re looking from an outsider’s point of view, but lower risk experiments are needed sometimes too whether it be to verify something or just boost your confidence. If I ultimately do decide to go into research then I will take these tips as my tenets.
