Faculty Mentor: Ayako Yamaguchi (School of Biological Sciences, University of Utah)

Working in the Yamaguchi lab through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program over the fall semester has enriched my college experience and taught me necessary research skills that cannot be developed in the classroom alone. I joined the Yamaguchi lab primarily to work with animals and learn biology lab techniques as all my previous experience had been in chemistry labs. The biggest lesson I’ve received over my time is that experiments are unpredictable, and there are far more variables to consider in a real lab compared to a manicured teaching lab. In science, you fail, a lot as I’ve learned. One of the most valuable skills I’ve gained is how to fail. Designing properly controlled experiments to catch failure, taking notes of everything done during experiments to see what might have caused that failure, and learning that it is okay to scrap procedures and return to the drawing board – these are all foundational skills for a researcher I’m glad to have developed in my undergraduate. I’ve gained far more confidence in my research ability and identity as a scientist, and I plan on applying these lessons and newfound confidence to the challenges I will surely face in graduate school. I am incredibly excited to begin the next stages in my career, and I am incredibly grateful for the experiences that brought me on this path.

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