Hello Blog,
Apologies for my absence – I’ve recently returned from my first scientific conference, so I was off-campus for a bit! I spent 5 whole days in Philadelphia for the Biophysical Society’s Annual Meeting. One thing about Wellesley classes is that students definitely attend, so I was a bit nervous about missing class, but my professors really worked with me to make sure I was caught up on material. I’ve been able to schedule meetings with them to go over any questions I have, and I feel completely back on track. It’s also pretty common for Wellesley students to travel to conferences, so professors know how to support students through these opportunities.
But let me tell you a bit about the conference! To prepare, we had to submit an abstract in the early fall. An abstract is a brief paragraph describing your research project, which I’ve had experience writing in the past doing research at Wellesley. Once the abstract was accepted, we created a poster summarizing our research. For summer research at Wellesley, we make posters at the end of the program, but I had never presented to people outside of the Wellesley community. In one of the sessions I presented at, I was standing alongside other undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, professors, and industry scientists. It was really cool to be a part of science occurring at different levels within a very specific field.
I traveled with one of my lab mates and my research advisor, but my advisor really let us have free reign of the conference, and we were able to meet students from other colleges. I had a lot of current graduate students give me their information so I could ask them questions about grad school, which was very kind of them. Some people heard me present and then sent me papers they thought might be helpful for my research. The exchange of ideas was really exciting to experience first-hand. The opportunity to be exposed to such a broad range of biophysics research was a really valuable experience for me as I consider what type of research I hope to pursue in graduate school.
I will not lie though, it was very tiring! We spent the days bouncing around from specialized research talks, networking events, and poster sessions. On the first night, we both went to sleep at 9:30 pm. But I also had a fun time! We watched the Super Bowl on the hotel TV, and of course, I had my first authentic Philly cheesesteak. And not to bury the lead, but I danced with Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi (the winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry) at the annual dance following her speech.
I’m really grateful for the research I’ve been able to do as an undergraduate, and I think it’s prepared me well for expanding beyond Wellesley. This summer, I’ll be doing research at a different institution in a completely different academic setting and geographical location. I’m really excited for the challenge and the opportunity to apply what I’ve learned!
Until next time,
Jade <3
A photo my research advisor took of me presenting!