I’ve become pretty jaded by the world lately. Too many late night life conversations about wars and genocide and planes crashing have made me wish I was an aerospace engineer, so I could help put colonies on the moon to escape. Instead, I just walk around, studying my surroundings through whatever the opposite of rose-colored glasses are, my inner cynic out in full force. In these times, sometimes it’s hard to remember that there’s still good for the sake of good.
That is, until I walk into lab.
Let’s back up for a minute. Fall semester junior year, I went abroad to Queen Mary, University of London. The first thing two of my engineering professors there asked me when I told them I was from Duke was, “Oh, do you know Farsh?”
They were referring to Dr. Farshid Guilak, a leading expert in regenerative medicine and head of one of the best orthopedic research labs in the country. At the time, I had no idea who he was.
Two months later, I got the email that informed me I was going to be a Pratt Fellow in that same orthopedic research lab. Confession—I was so excited, I cried. Not uncontrollable sobbing, but definitely a gentle tear as I read and re-read the email in my East London flat. I was going to be a part of one of Duke’s best traditions—undergraduate research.
Ask anyone—regardless of major or year—and they’ll know what a big deal undergraduate research is at Duke. With over 50 percent of all Duke undergraduates having some sort of research experience here before their graduation, it’s easy to see why it’s one of the university’s top selling points. The opportunities here are just about boundless. We have, quite literally, a street called "Research Drive", and whether you choose to send countless emails until someone replies, or participate in an established program, like Pratt Fellows—shout out to Dean Absher—you can to get involved if you wish.
So why, with all the other things to do in college—dancing and singing and sports and, of course, classes—add research to your load?
The simple answer—it’ll be one of the best decisions you make in your time here.
If you ever mention to me, even in casual passing, that you work in a lab, I will immediately ask you what your research is. It is one of my favorite past times to see someone come alive as they describe what they willingly spend hours doing. Suddenly, these 18-22 year olds transform from their normal college student selves to young adults throwing out words that I don’t understand and explaining concepts I can’t grasp. But I love it. In that moment, they aren’t talking about a problem set or something they were lectured about. Pride and passion is clear in the way they talk because they are telling me about things that they have had to learn the old fashioned way—by doing.
Participating in undergraduate research presents the rare opportunity to, as a college student, make valuable contributions to a body of work in science. Duke’s research culture isn’t about fetching senior graduate students’ coffee. It’s those senior graduate students, post-doctorates and faculty entrusting you to carry out experiments and research something unique and unknown, using reagents that cost thousands of dollars and machinery that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Advisors and colleagues become friends, sources of guidance and sharers of stories.
Immediately, real world responsibility is placed on your shoulders, and I have found that Duke students tend to thrive under this weight. We welcome the opportunity to apply and prove ourselves with utmost enthusiasm. In a lab, you aren’t just an undergraduate. You are a peer with a valued opinion. As senior Silvia de Denaro Vieira eloquently put, “Undergraduate research gave me confidence in the laboratory in a way that no class could have. Being given the opportunity to work one-on-one with incredibly talented and patient researchers propelled me to study natural sciences despite my humanities background.”
More than anything, participating in research inspires me. It’s a daily reminder of the remarkable things that are happening in the world. There is no textbook for what I get to do. While my classes give me a toolbox, research is what really lets me get out there and answer questions I want to answer.
A small sampling of the things the incredible people I am proud to call my friends are involved in—developing computational models to help explain the sensation of paresthesia during spinal cord stimulation during chronic pain treatment, evaluating the effect of gene knockdown in toxicity of carcinogens to fish embryo development, studying why people cheat or have certain preferences, profiling adipose derived stem cells for their regenerative properties and markers of pathogenesis, inserting and deleting genes in biological systems using the latest in genome engineering and being the only person in the world who can make meniscal derived matrix.
Didn’t understand most of that? It’s okay—neither do I. But they do. And that’s incredible.
Ananya Zutshi is a Pratt senior. Her column runs every other Tuesday.
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