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PBD Student Events
Undergraduate Diversity Lunch
Friday
August 1, 2003 at 12:00 p.m., Annual Summer Student
Lunch in the Calvin Seminar Room. Graham Fleming will
host the Undergraduate Diversity Lunch. The annual lunch
recognizes undergraduates’ contributions to the division,
and also provides an opportunity for undergraduates
to let us know how we can maximize their work experience.
Special guest will be Dr. Jan Liphardt
who will give a brief talk and tour of his lab. For
those people coming from the Lab, bus service will be
provided. The bus will be picking up in Sally’s Alley
(above the ALS) at 11:45 then at Bldg 64 at 11:50
and then drop at the Gayley stop just past the Haas
Business school. The bus will also bring people back
up the hill. Please RSVP to Marissa
Tablan by end of Monday, July 28, 2003. See you
all there!
Division Picnic
Thursday September 4, 2003 Division Picnic in Tilden
Park.
Winter Seminar Series
Wednesday October 15, 2003 PBD Winter Seminar Series
begins
Annual Winter Student Lunch
November 18, 2003 Annual Winter Student Lunch. |
Genomes to Life - A New Program in PBD
Recently LBNL was awarded $36.5M over 5 years to work
on Genomes
to Life an exciting new DOE initiative. PBD Faculty
Scientists Dr.
Adam Arkin, and Dr.
Jay Keasling with Earth Sciences Division's, Dr. Terry Hazen in heading
up LBNL's contribution to this program. The researchers
will use a whole-system approach to understand how bacteria
convert toxic materials into less dangerous forms.
The team will use computer modeling to predict how bacteria
behave/survive in different environments, and will focus
on technical R&D (research and development) to improve
the output of the experimental and computational facilities
employed by the program. This research could be used
to help mitigate environmental pollution and clean up
soil, air and water contamination. Information on this
and related programs can be found through the Virtual
Institute for Microbial Stress and Survival (VIMSS).
Undergraduate Experience
by Tomer Altman
Even before I first set foot on the Berkeley campus
as a naive freshman, I knew that I wanted nothing more
than to get involved in research. After all, I was accepted
into the engineering program at one of the top research
institutions in the world; it would seem wasteful not
to take advantage of the latent opportunity all around
me. For the first three months, I stuck my head into
every office I could find, and spoke with numerous professors,
trying to get a sense of what was possible for an undergraduate
to achieve in the way of a research position. And through
a serendipidous mixture of diligence and sheer luck,
I found myself a spot at a wonderful research lab.
Along the way, I've picked
up some rules of thumb and practical advice from graduate
students, professors, and my own experience that I would
like to convey to any and all students who are either
contemplating how to get involved in research, or who
are currently involved in research:
- Be
persistent. No one is going around asking for you.
You have to find the research labs that are looking
for undergraduate research positions to fill. Check
with department administration offices, with particular
professors, and with university/LBNL–sponsored research
programs.
- Ignore
the rules. Some undergraduates have the belief that
unless they apply to some official ‘give-an-undergraduate-a-chance’
program, that there is no possibility of them being
able to work for some lab. These programs are great,
but they’re not the only game in town. You can have
even more luck, in fact, by just directly interacting
with the research labs themselves, for some Principal
Investigators (academia way of saying professor) do
not know of these programs, so they don’t offer positions
which are available through them.
- Be
interested in the field of research. You are either
going to burn out or hate research if you force yourself
to participate in any form of research in an area
that is of no interest to you. Even if the science
and mathematics are very advanced for you, and even
if you’re not directly involved in the research at
first, only commit yourself to what genuinely piques
your intellectual curiosity. The understanding will
come. You will directly contribute in time. Just be
honest with yourself. Besides, it will become painfully
obvious to everyone you work with if you’re not interested
in the topic of research.
- Pace
yourself. Make sure that whomever you report to as
a researcher knows of your course load, your other
commitments (work, athletics, family, etc.). Let them
know that you definitely want to contribute in any
way that you can, but that it has to be a reasonable
amount of work for a beginning undergraduate researcher.
- Talk
to graduate students in the lab. Talk to post-doctoral
researchers. In fact, make sure you introduce yourself
to everyone in the lab that you can. This will help
in just about every aspect imaginable. Every one of
these researchers were at one point or another at
your level of knowledge, and they will be a great
resource for helping you learn more about the lab’s
field of interest. They also often have sage advice
when it comes to coursework, career options, and insider
knowledge of what it is like to work in a lab (or
academia in general).
Have fun. Don’t be afraid
to spend those extra hours at the lab just for the sake
of learning. Read a chapter on chemical physics, or
learn how to program. These are skills that will not
only help you in any career you chose, or in your coursework,
but will enhance your ability to make solid contributions
to the lab’s research projects. Have discussions with
graduate students and Ph.D.’s on what is it that excites
them about science, and how they got started in research.
The motivation that drives them is contagious, and before
you know it, it will kindle that same spark in you.
~Tomer Altman
Arkin Laboratory for Dynamical Genomics
New Online Student Information
As part of our student program, we are developing an
online tool to keep in touch with you (our students)
after you leave the division. This form is currently
being developed, but we would really appreciate it if
each of you would give us some information while you
are here so that we can enter it into the system when
it is up and running. Attached is a copy of the PBD Student Programs Participation
Form. Please fill it out and return it to us. If
you have questions about this or any of our programs,
please contact Ellen Ford at EFord@lbl.gov
or Monica Miller at MMiller@lbl.gov.
Student Resources
There are several funding sources and research programs
available for students through the lab and UC. Some
of them that may be of interest to you are as follows:
SAGE Scholars Program
http://students.berkeley.edu/sagescholars/
Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program
http://research.berkeley.edu/urap/
Center for Science and
Engineering Education
http://csee.lbl.gov/
Work-study Program
http://workstudy.berkeley.edu/
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