Casey Hamilton '09
As I reach the halfway point of my senior year at Northeastern, I think of the path I have taken to this point. A major part of my journey so far has been partaking in research as an undergraduate, culminating in a Junior/Senior Honors Project. This research experience has taken me from a lab in Mugar Hall to various exciting places, including the rainforests of Panama and Reno, Nevada. As a biology major, I was encouraged to participate in undergraduate research in a faculty lab. As I discussed a potential project with Professor Rebeca Rosengaus, little did I know where this research would take me. I began working in her lab in the spring semester of last year examining the different behaviors and mechanisms that social insects, specifically termites and ants, have evolved to deal with the intense microbial pressures present in their environments. One semester of independent research allowed me to produce a strong proposal for a Senior Honors Project.
I was fortunate enough to receive a Research Experience for Undergraduates grant from the National Science Foundation to travel to Panama for four months last summer as a research assistant to a Ph.D. candidate from Northeastern. From the middle of April to August, I lived and worked at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's facilities in Panama. Meeting many other scientists from diverse disciplines and backgrounds opened my eyes to the scientific world. Working in the heat and humidity every day provided me with experience in both field and laboratory research. As I spent the summer hiking through the rainforest collecting termites and absorbing the beauty and diversity of nature, I came to realize that I wanted to continue this type of work as a graduate student.
On returning from Panama, I was eager to get started on my Senior Honors Project. After months of hard work in the lab, I had produced sufficient results describing the potential social transfer of immunity in carpenter ants to present my findings at the Entomological Society of America's annual meeting in Reno, Nevada. I was able to accompany graduate students and another undergraduate student from the Rosengaus lab to the conference with funding provided by an Honors Undergraduate Research Award, and will be able to continue my research with this funding. In Reno, I was exposed to a large and diverse amount of current research in the study of insects. Not only did I get to see many interesting presentations from students, professors, and professionals in the entomological world, but I also was able to make many connections with different people while I was there. A few professors from different universities took an interest in my research, and even asked me if I would be interested in doing my graduate work with them. Having discussed a potential thesis project for a master's thesis with a professor while at the conference, I was able to make potential plans for graduate school.
Only halfway through my Senior Honors Project, I have been presented with great opportunities that have provided invaluable experience and have prepared me for my future in the scientific field. I will be presenting my research at the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology conference along with graduate students from my lab in January as well. As I begin to plan out my final semester at Northeastern, I hope to make as much progress as possible in my research, and I hope to be able to collect enough data to publish a paper with Professor Rosengaus. Although I have had to invest much time and hard work in the research, I am excited to continue working, and grateful for the opportunity to gain the advantage of having such valuable experience, preparing me for the future of my academic career.