What years did you participate in UROP?

2008-2009

What UROP Program(s) were you a part of?

Traditional UROP as a Freshman

What made you choose UROP?

An interest in research and discovery.

What do you think you have learned from your UROP experience?

Hypothesis testing, designing controls, and designing appropriate models to test the hypothesis.

What is the extent to which you have kept in contact with your Research Mentor?

Shani Ross and I have not kept in contact. She had recommended a lab to work in after my UROP where I worked for several summers.

How did your UROP experience shape or inform the next steps you took in your academic and professional journey?

It had planted the seed of curiosity that I kept analyzing as time went on in Michigan and eventually led to me determine that a science career was a rewarding career for me. It was part of the journey that steered me into an answer I felt was worthwhile for my career.

Where are you in your professional journey?

I am a scientist. I work on laboratory and pilot scale experiments for biopharmaceuticals process development. More specifically, I perform media and feed screens in shake flasks, micro-bioreactors, and small scale bioreactors to determine optimal cell culture growth conditions to develop robust pre-culture and bioreactor processes and parameters for a desired drug substance that scale effectively to GMP manufacturing.

What advice would you give to a current UROP student?

At the moment, your curiosity is your GPS in your journey. Don't ignore it. Often times your curiosity can lead to a deviation in your journey, but there was a lesson learned in that deviation that realigned you to your true path.

What are some recent publications or accomplishments that you are proud of?

My dissertation thesis from my PhD is something I am absolutely most proud of. I went from engineering to gene therapy scientist and that thesis showcases who I am and what I have done.

"Process design for scalable recombinant adeno-associated virus."