I am a graduate student in the Nutritional and Metabolic Biology department. I study how our body breaks down and uses the fat that we eat. I am especially interested in understanding what happens when our body stores excess fat. Frequently when this occurs our adipose tissue (commonly known as fat tissue) is saturated and the fat enters into more "fragile" cells in the pancreas and heart where it can be harmful and toxic. The influx of fat into these cells is associated with health disorders such as Type 2 Diabetes and heart disease. My project is to try to understand exactly how the non-adipose tissues are being harmed by the increased levels of fat and what we can do to treat the associated diseases. I became interested in nutrition in high school and went into science to understand how what we eat affects how our body works. I love being in science because I get to wake up and solve a different question. It's never the same job every day!

I study conservation biology and genetics. I always loved math and science in school, and really enjoyed being outdoors. Being a conservation biologist I get to do a lot of fieldwork – every summer I go to Costa Rica to follow squirrel monkeys around and collect their poop for genetic analysis. I have a lot of fun, especially knowing that the work I’m doing will help save a critically endangered species from extinction.

I study how local communities use forests in their daily lives in India. I'm interested in understanding these communities' relationships with nature and how they protect animals, plants, and other biodiversity. I love ecology because it lets me study the environment while meeting wonderful people from all around the world who also love forests and spend a lot of time with nature. When I'm in New York, I love running and taking walks in Riverside Park, where I can watch birds, squirrels, and other animals in the midst of the city.

I am a graduate student in the Nutritional and Metabolic Biology department. I study how nutrients affect our bodies during health and disease. I am particularly interested in how fat and carbohydrate usage changes occur before and after heart failure and how these changes can positively or negatively impact recovery. In healthy hearts, fat provides the majority of fuel for energy production. After a heart attack, the heart switches to using carbohydrates to provide fuel for energy production. Since using fat for energy is more efficient and storing fat in the heart is unhealthy, I believe that this switch to carbohydrate use is responsible for part of the subsequent deterioration of heart function and eventual death. Heart failure is the number one global killer, yet we have an incomplete understanding of the myriad processes that influence this disease. I hope that my research will contribute to a larger understanding of heart failure that will translate to more positive clinical outcomes.

I am a graduate student interested in studying cells at the microscopic and molecular level. In cells, the DNA is organized into specific sequences called genes. Each gene in a cell is a “code” for a certain “message” that allows that cell to grow and divide and live a happy life. However, these messages can be expressed too much, and sometimes not at all, leading to abnormal cells and growth. I am interested in researching the ways genes are normally and abnormally expressed in cells. I’ve always liked all aspects of science, but my interest in cells began during my high school biology classes. Being in science is fun and exciting, and you literally never know what you’re going to discover!

I study psychology and neuroscience and am particularly interested in understanding how people make themselves feel better after they have gotten upset emotionally. To do this, we take pictures of people's brains when they're feeling upset or not upset and see how they are different. I also do things like look at how much people's palms sweat when they feel upset and how their heart beats faster or slower depending on how they are feeling emotionally. Currently, I'm doing research on how the brains of children, teenagers and adults behave differently when they try to control their emotions. I love studying psychology and neuroscience because I always enjoyed working with people and doing science experiments and this allows me to do both. I hate being bored and the best part about science is that I am never, ever bored by my work-there is something different happening every day!

I am a physicist representing the BK who studies how electrons behave. Electrons are some of the most mysterious and awesome things on the planet. Because they can either repel or attract one another they can effectively "talk" to one another and conspire to produce phenomena that we physicists have a hard time predicting. For example, it is electrons that are responsible for superconductivity, the ability of certain materials to allow the electrons to flow forever without any energy loss! As a kid, I was a mathmo (slang for math nerd in the United Kingdom!), but then the physics bug grew on me and here I am. In any case, I look forward to meeting you all this weekend!

I study DNA damage repair at the single molecule level. Using physics and biology, we are able to see individual molecules interacting with each other. Using these techniques, we hope to be able to reach a level of understanding that will allow better drug design for diseases such as cancer. I really enjoyed my science classes in school and I think that those classes are a large part of the reason I went into science in college. I like designing, carrying out, and analyzing experiments in order to learn new things. I find the work both challenging and engaging every day.

This is my second year in the graduate program for Neurobiology and Behavior. I have always been interested in how the brain works. How do we remember things? What happens in the brain that makes people depressed or anxious? New cells (called neurons) are formed every day in a part of our brain called the hippocampus. I am studying these neurons in mice to see how they affect memory and mood. I also study the antidepressant Prozac, to see how it affects these new neurons. I love doing experiments to try to figure out what goes on inside our heads to make us the people that we are!

I am a graduate student studying animal behavior and genetics. My field site is in a forest in western Kenya where I am currently studying the causes and consequences of male reproductive skew in blue monkeys. I am interested in figuring out what makes a successful blue monkey male and am using genetics to determine which individuals in the population are reproducing. I've always loved science and being outdoors and am so happy that my research lets me combine the two!

I am a 4th year graduate student studying Chemistry. I study how light can be used to change the chemistry of surfaces. With UV light, I can attach another molecule to the surface and monitor changes in its interaction with water - making a surface either hate (hydrophobic) or love (hydrophilic) water. One application of making surfaces SUPERhydrophobic (really hate water) is in the airline industry. In some cases of airplane crashes, the reason behind the accident is the effect of icing on plane wings. We can prevent airplanes from crashing by coating the plane wings with materials that will help prevent water from sticking and icing over.

I am a second year graduate student in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science. I am currently researching the effect of volcanic clast size on the geochemistry of mafic melt inclusions. My current samples are from the 1974 eruption of Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala. My past research has involved glacialvolcanism and human response to volcanic hazards and has taken me to places such as British Columbia, Iceland, and Montserrat. I love being a geoscientist because it is a science of all scales: ranging from the atomic scale to the planetary scale. Geoscience also allows me to be outside in remote areas and to work with my hands.