Ana DriscollJunior Bioinformatics student As a bioinformatics major, I knew that I was interested in pursuing a career at the intersection of computer science and biology. As a non-premed, I had no idea what that might actually look like. I decided to find a research position over the summer in order to see whether research could be a potential future career. I was looking for paid work, so I mostly limited my search to REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) programs. Funded by the National Science Foundation, these programs are hosted at universities across the country and provide housing, a meal plan, and a stipend as you participate in full-time research under a faculty mentor (a complete list of programs and more information can be found here). Each program centers around a particular research topic - genomics, for example, or medical informatics. I picked six or seven programs I was interested in, sent in my applications, and was accepted into one - the Models in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology REU at the University of Kansas. As someone interested in both computer science and biology, its focus on the application of mathematical and computational techniques to answer ecological and evolutionary questions appealed to me. My project involved identifying sex-linked genes in butterflies using genomic data. After doing some preliminary reading once I finished my spring semester, I was ready to begin work. The other students in my program and I jumped right into research once we arrived, spending our weekdays working in our labs from 9 to 5. My project was computational, so I used a lot of that time to write code. In addition to our individual projects, we had weekly group activities on topics such as research ethics, abstract writing, or how to give a talk. Since the theme of the REU was the application of models to ecological questions, we would occasionally take day trips off campus to learn more about ecology as a field. One such trip took us to the Konza Prairie Biological Field Station run by Kansas State University to learn about the long-term ecological research that goes on there. We spent down time in our dorm and in downtown Lawrence (where the University of Kansas is located). A particular favorite of ours was buy-one-get-one-free ice cream on Tuesday nights at Sylas and Maddys. At the end of the summer. we each gave a 15-minute talk on our results, presented posters, and completed a rough draft of a manuscript. I had a really great time and learned a lot of useful and concrete skills. While I enjoyed my work, I found that academic research is probably not the right path for me. I did, however, find the statistical aspects of my project super interesting and am looking into pursuing a M.S. in Biostatistics as a result. My advice to underclassmen would be to go outside of your comfort zone! I chose the REU at the University of Kansas - which has an ecology focus - despite having absolutely no experience in the field. Had I let my fears of being under-qualified keep me from sending in that application, I would have missed out on a great summer.
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January 2022
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