Research On the Researcher

Dear Forum. I am glad to announce that all I have learned in Biological Writing is paying off. I wrote what I believe was a "killer resume," until I learned there is not such a thing, and a great personal statement and used them to apply for the Undergraduate Research and Mentoring (URM) Program. My resume served its purpose, I made the cut to the interview part. Thus, I decided it would be interesting to do some research to be as prepared for my interview as I possibly can. So why not do some little research on the researchers that host the interviews? I would like to think that a little of initiative to learn about the field I am looking to work on can help during my interview. I mean what if they ask me about what I think their research is about and I don’t know? That would certainly be bad.

Fortunately, to do research on my Professors is easier than I thought. It is as simple as typing their names in GOOGLE SCHOLAR, my new best friend. It took me less than a few minutes to find a vast amount of papers that Dr. Kristine L. Lowe has written or had a contribution on. However, I am not giving up since the most recent paper I found about her is 4 years old which I think is very strange. Dr. Zen is ALWAYS talking about how important continuity in scientific writing is. Thus, I don’t believe she has not published anything recently. I am inclined to look for more papers in a scientific database.

Before that, nonetheless, I looked through the UTPA Biology website and I was able to find a lot of the papers some Professors have been working on in chronological order. What else could I ask for? Dr. Zen and Dr. Fredensborg are among the Professors I know that seem to write pretty regularly. I know Dr. Fredensborg is a member of the committee to decide which students get into the URM Program but I also have a lot of knowledge about his research since I took an animal parasitology class he was teaching during the summer.

Now, I feel more confident walking into my interview tomorrow morning Thursday, December, 1^st. I am eager to take on a new challenge and possibly work with the program to do good research, publish some academic papers and presenting what we have learned to the scientific community. It is not certain I will get the position but what is certain is that I will try my very best. Why am I writing about this in my biology blog? Duh! Because it is MY blog and I can write what I want and since there is nothing else I can think about right now, I think this is a good way of releasing some stress about the topic. By the way, this might be the last mandatory blog I do for a grade. However, I will continue to write. I believe blogging has a lot to offer. A few months back, I believe it was just a nerdy or busybody way of communication but I now understand the importance of blogging in the scientific and the academic community in general.