Among the famous scientists, early career researchers and graduate research students, undergraduates are also welcome at BPS meetings every year. There are dedicated sessions, mixers and resources for students interested in research during their undergraduate program and later in their career. During this year's undergraduate poster competition, I spoke to four undergraduate participants about their experience at BPS2020, their research, and their career goals.
Lindsey Hensley from Bridgewater College, VA presented the work she did with Dr. Nathan Wright at James Madison University. This was Lindsey's first BPS meeting, and she says she was "nervous at first, but [it] was a great experience so far". She further added that attending a big conference like BPS2020 helped her in "building confidence to talk to people". On her research, she says "understanding mutations is important to knowing how muscular dystrophy occurs, a disease that affects 250,000 individuals in the USA annually". Lindsey is a senior and is considering graduate school but has her options open. You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram.
Diego Kleiman works with Prof. Serdal Kirmizialtin at New York University at Abu Dhabi, and is attending his first BPS meeting this year. About BPS 2020, he says "although I've been to other conferences, this is a big [event] and I met so many scientists in one place". He added that the undergraduate poster session was a good practice for the scheduled poster session for everyone. Diego hopes that his research will help scientists "understand the underlying physical behavior of biological molecules and to obtain their structure and function". After he graduates, Diego is interested in pursuing graduate school in biophysics.
For Emily Matozel from Prof. Allen Price's lab at Emmanuel College, Boston, attending BPS2020 was "an amazing opportunity to know other [researchers'] works, with the experience ranging from undergraduate to postdoc". This is the second BPS meeting for Emily, and she says her "confidence has gone up this year" and she has "learned how to present [her work], excited to engage in discussion with fellow scientists". From being one of the undergraduate attendees from her lab the previous year, Emily now has more experience in such big conferences and is “very interested in learning about the works of other researchers, especially those within [her] field of study". Emily works on programmable roadblocks that bind to DNA with hopes to fully characterize the mechanisms behind type II restriction enzymes. She is interested in pursuing clinical research or a PhD program after she graduates.
Javier Vilcapoma is attending his first BPS meeting, and presented the work he did with Dr. Ken Halvorsen at SUNY Albany. On his experience in BPS2020, Javier says "it was welcoming", and that "there was no difference between postdocs or grad students or undergrads, just a name tag". He added that the event was a good opportunity to network and make friends. Javier works on enhancing the biostability of DNA nanostructures, and says he wants to "give utility to these cool [DNA] nanostructures". After his undergraduate program, he wants to attend medical school. Javier was also one of the winners for best undergraduate poster presenters in this year's competition.