About

Welcome to my bench space

Join me as I find my voice as a novice, female Bioengineer. My brain can get as jumbled and busy as my bench space, but I ALWAYS tidy my bench at the end of the day. Similarly, I am pouring my daily (or weekly) hypotheses and musings about science, careers, work place equality, why my cloning fails, and everything in between onto this website.

I plan to share polls (surveys), opinion pieces (reviews), how-to guides (Protocols), photos & artwork (data), summaries of my favorite articles (Abstracts) and maybe even some advice (Mentorship?) from my time in a lab coat. I hope to build a community of other scientists and hear your stories too. While I am starting small, I hope to eventually publish widely in my favorite “journals” (Instagram & LinkedIn).

Surprisingly, grad school is the first time in my life I have been surrounded almost exclusively by Bioengineers. I was a big fan of the Poli-Sci & adjacent students in undergrad, and probably spent more time engineering witty jokes and bits laced with social commentary than talking about science.

My best friend frequently asks me how my cells are, and if I am feeding them enough; however, she does not know what E. coli is besides something that may be on lettuce, and could not even begin to explain what HEK293Ts are. While these friendships are priceless and the effort they put into understanding my work shows the depth of their love, being the only scientist among your friends can be alienating. The hours and disappointment of failed experiments can be hard to understand when it is not your everyday reality (just as I cannot comprehend the legal jargon they are often faced with). If you are in the same boat I was in, I hope to be a springboard for your science community.

Don’t worry, despite all these scientific puns and analogies, I do try to prioritize my work life balance. While I am not immune to 12 hour slogs, I strongly believe in 3 well rounded meals a day, working out (sometimes even during incubation periods) and having social plans to look forward to. I have found that one of the best motivations for leaving at the end of the day is having hungry friends waiting on me to start eating dinner. As part of this journey I am learning how to say “no,” stand up for myself, and that I am the best possible scientist when I am well rested, fed, and supported.

I am in the middle of finishing up my master’s thesis and looking to transition to a research role in the biotech industry. I love teaching and communicating science, and am even considering trying my hand as a professional science advocate and communicator in the future. This is where I will practice, polish my prose, and refine my writing.

Here are some of my key beliefs, which I hope to center in this experience:

Everyone can comprehend science, as long as scientists know how to appropriately communicate to their audience.
Considering the human impact of scientific development is essential (I unapologetically believe science derives its value from its potential impact on improving human life)
Science is an endurance sport!!
51% of the battle is mental (the rest is a mix of education, effort, skill, luck, preparedness, and support)
There continues to be a need for more female scientists, like you and me!

Whether you are a fellow bioengineer, scientist, have a jumble of thoughts, or are just curious about mine, please join me on this journey! I even think my thoughts are currently more organized than my bench. Anyway, here’s to more organized bench spaces — both literal and metaphoric!