On just their second day at this Howard Hughes Medical Institute interdisciplinary facility near Ashburn, VA, the Wabash seniors were to present their work with Wabash Chemistry Professor Laura Wysocki to one of the Farm’s research groups.
“A nerve-racking day” Kitley calls it. Among the $300 million center’s 350 resident and visiting investigators are some of the top scientists in fields connected to neurobiology.
And Kitley and Santa Maria would be presenting to the group headed by Professor Wysocki’s own research collaborator, Luke Lavis.
“This was quite intimidating—it meant that our re-search on fluorescent dyes is a subject that everyone in that meeting already knew a lot about,” Kitley says.
The crucible was part and parcel of the experience Wysocki planned for the students at the place where she conducted her postdoctoral research and is a visiting scientist.
“When we first arrived, Peter and Weston were overwhelmed by the atmosphere at Janelia, where collaborations occur everywhere from the laboratory to the lunchroom table, and scientists from different disciplines discuss their research from multiple perspectives,” Wysocki says. “While they didn’t understand all the jargon, they realized that they could understand some of the chemistry that they had been exposed to and began to feel more comfortable.”
That was particularly true in the lab, where the students tried out new conditions for a troublesome reaction they were having while working on Professor Wysocki’s quest to synthesize a fluorescent sensor for the chemical element palladium.
And their presentation to her collaborator’s group?
“We knew our research very well and, thanks to some help from Dr. Wysocki, we were able to answer any questions they had,” Kitley says.
“I was proud of their preparation,” Wysocki says. “Peter and Weston represented Wabash Col-lege well.”
As a result, the opportunity is available for future Wabash students to visit Janelia and, if interested, to apply for the competitive summer internships there.
“For me, taking students to Janelia was like two of my worlds coming together,” the professor says. “My students were able to gain insight into life as a research scientist, and I was proud to introduce my friends and colleagues to two of Wabash’s outstanding chemistry majors.”
The experience had lasting effects on both students, Wysocki notes.
“Seeing a research-centered environment outside academia was a new experience for them. When we returned to Crawfordsville, I saw a renewed drive, confidence, and pride in their work.”
“Few undergrads have access to this type of equipment or have the opportunity to work where the highest caliber scientists in the world work,” says Dean of the College Gary Phillips. He sees the trip to Janelia as an example of the way “this new generation of faculty are blending research and teaching in a way so porous that it’s hard to keep them apart.
“That’s what the liberal arts does.”