Eyeing the future

I've lost my note cards! I'm so sad about it. I had all the information from the mixer in those, and I kept thinking that I'd write this post after I found them. The mixer was good. I really enjoyed meeting the professors that were there. Their participation makes me think that they're actively interested in working with students which makes me much more likely to seek them out in the future. Actually, there were THREE of them whose projects were super interesting to me! I don't know how I'm go to settle on one project. I suppose that reflects my hesitance to settle into one degree as well. An adviser told me not to worry too much about choosing and that he thinks people are too worried about specializing and that leads to people being less well-rounded. I don't know though. Specialization is how we got more complex organisms. I kinda like the idea of being an expert in something, but I think he's probably right about focus especially as an undergrad.
     Anyway, I heard about a professor whose last name is Price that works with genetics and flies that sounded really interesting, but I didn't meet them, so that's about as much as I got from that. I met Pam Polidoro who was Completely kind and helpful. She not only patiently answered my questions about her research but also my questions about differences in fields close and/or related to hers and referred me to her colleagues when their research was relevant to what we were talking about. Oh! She told us to email her for invites to talks one of the people that she mentors gives about research that is relevant to ours! I'm gonna do that as soon as I'm done here! But you see how nice and helpful she was?! I would love to work with her. Most of her stuff is related to aquatics and microplastics which is part of why I'd like to work with her, but after meeting her, I just think that she's a lovely person. I also met Karen Watanabe, and we talked a lot about toxicology and the difference between environmental toxicology and medical or pharmacy toxicology. She seemed very knowledgeable, and from what I gather, she kind of straddles that line but leans toward pharmacy since her interest and research is more towards the potential or eventual effects on humans as opposed to the environment. Finally, I met Dr Marshall whose research is based on the study of proteins like enzymes as it relates to cell signalling, their interactions with each other, and their effects on gene expression. I know those things are all kind of similar and overlapping, but I can only tell you about what I understood as I heard it. I probably got some stuff wrong or even inaccurate about their stuff. If they ever hear about it, I hope they'll forgive me. I just wanted to point out how interesting all the things that they are doing are and the fantastic opportunities that are there.
     Meeting Dr Marshall last was very fortunate because she actually gave us a small tour that ended in us getting to see her lab. For the most part it all seemed very standard which is a comfort. The whole campus has the same kind of cozy feeling that I've come to associate with Phoenix College. I very much look forward to spending time on the campus. Don't get me wrong, it's still much larger than Phoenix College and finding where you fit in such a larger place can sometimes make us seem smaller as individuals, but it really is a very pretty campus and I like the idea of contributing to that thing that is so much bigger than me. Anyway, rambling! Sam is actually a part of Dr Marshall's lab, and as it turns out, they are quite the artists, regular renaissance scientists. :-P