#IAmScience
March 25, 2022
#IAmScience: Kathryn Vanden Hoek
By Karly Balslew | Bond LSC Kathryn Vanden Hoek proves that it is never too early to dive into research if you have a passion for it. The undergraduate research assistant started hands-on research her freshman year through the Freshman Research in Plants Programs (FRIPS). This program introduces new students to plant research and exposes them to a lab setting. She matched with the Chris Pires lab at Bond LSC in January of 2021. “I absolutely love it,” Vanden Hoek said. “I knew for a long time that I wanted to do research, so…
March 11, 2022
#IAmScience: Juliette Baker
By: Karly Balslew | Bond LSC Science and art may feel like completely separate departments but for research scientist Juliette Baker, this couldn’t be further than the truth. Her mom is a graphic designer and fueled her passion for art while Baker’s own love for science fused the two worlds together. She even drew a diagram for her master’s thesis on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). “Honestly, people don’t think science and art overlap a ton,” Baker said. “But, I’m making tons of schematics for people to understand, and it’s all my artistic brain, really.”…
Feb. 25, 2022
#I Am Science Mariam Teme
By: Karly Balslew | Bond LSC Mariam Teme’s passion for plants started while growing up in Mali, West Africa, as she watched her father — an agricultural economist — interact with plants daily in the lush area where she grew up. “It’s like my own little bubble of peace when I’m surrounded by plants,” Teme said. Teme, now a member of the Bing Yang lab, planned to study agriculture for her bachelor’s degree but her university in Istanbul, Turkey, only offered genetics and bioengineering. However, integrated it with plant life for her future career. “I thought…
Feb. 18, 2022
#IAmScience Reinier Suarez
By Cara Penquite | Bond LSC When one of Reinier Suarez’s undergraduate professors suggested he go to graduate school, he was confused. “I had never heard of a Ph.D. in my life,” Suarez said. Three years later, Suarez is a first-year graduate student studying COVID-19 variants. Suarez came to Mizzou as part of the university’s Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP), a stepping-stone between his undergraduate studies at Florida International University and his graduate studies at MU. He joined Marc Johnson’s lab at Bond Life Sciences Center as a PREP scholar and liked it enough to stay…
Dec. 3, 2021
#IAmScience Harim Dos Santos
By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC Don’t mistake Harim Dos Santos’ kind demeanor and introspective silence for a lack of ambition. On the contrary, his head is full of reflection and big dreams. Coming from Brazil, Dos Santos has achieved quite a few of those dreams including researching at an American university. Dos Santos is now a postdoctoral fellow in the Olga Baker lab at Bond Life Sciences Center, developing ways to treat salivary gland damage in head and neck cancer patients and in Sjögren’s syndrome patients. “I’m loving it [here], really,” Dos Santos said. “It’s good…
Nov. 19, 2021
#IAmScience Qiongying Yang
By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC In the mornings after her usual walk on the local trails, research technician Qiongying Yang heads to the Kamlendra Singh lab. Her desk is surrounded by large empty beakers and the windowsill houses two big, beautiful flowerpots she gave her desk mate. Her soft-spoken manner, warmth and mathematical talent aided her in helping multiple labs throughout Bond Life Sciences Center for the past 17 years. Yang came to the US from China in 1999. In 2003, she came to Mizzou and found herself as a research technician at Bond LSC a…
Nov. 4, 2021
#IAmScience Clayton Rushford
By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC Clayton Rushford isn’t one to complain. While in the Marc Johnson lab at the Bond Life Sciences Center, he’s the guy cheering up lab mates when experiments fail or going with the flow when he must repeat an experiment for the fifth time. As long as he’s doing science, not much can bring him down. “It seems like a very generic answer but the fun thing about [science as a whole] is it’s more or less how we explain all the things that are going on around us with the use…
Oct. 15, 2021
#IAmScience Li Su
By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC The work was tiring. The hours were long. However, Ph.D. candidate Li Su wasn’t affected by any of it. She was in her element During her undergraduate degree in China, Su studied turfgrass science. “There was a chance for undergraduates to do some research project, so I tried it and, although it was exhausting, I stayed in the lab and time just passed,” Su said. “I felt quiet and at peace. I kind of enjoyed it.” As part of the Dong Xu lab at Bond Life Sciences Center, Su…
Oct. 1, 2021
#IAmScience Billy Schulze
By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC The best piece of advice Ph.D. candidate Billy Schulze ever received was from his father before a baseball game in high school. In past games, Schulze kept striking out. He wasn’t getting any runs. Things seemed bleak. Schulze’s father pulled him aside and said with a smile, “Don’t suck.” “That just kind of made me giggle,” Schulze said. “I think the real message behind that story is don’t think about it too hard. Relax. Have some fun…You can’t take things too seriously, having a sense of humor is so important. Working…
Sep. 10, 2021
Bond LSC duo lands national fellowship by working to advance diversity in science
As president of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) chapter at MU, graduate student Sara Ricardez Hernandez works to connect minority students to research opportunities. | Photo contributed by @MizzouSACNAS on Twitter, Bond LSC. By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC Sara Ricardez Hernandez starts her day in the Chris Lorson lab with a vibrant demeanor while wearing her jet-black lab coat. Within five minutes, the graduate student is already at her microscope. Ricardez Hernandez’s eagerness has only enhanced since she and principal investigator Chris Lorson won the Howard Hughes…
June 24, 2021
#IAmScience Lyndon Coghill
Lyndon Coghill is the new Director of Informatics Research Core, and he is already making big moves at Mizzou. Lyndon Coghill, Director of Informatics Research Core, stands near his office on June 22 at Bond LSC. | photo by Davis Suppes, Bond LSC By Davis Suppes | Bond LSC Lyndon Coghill’s official title may be Director of Informatics for the Informatics Research Core, but his job branches out much wider than just a single label. Even as an undergrad, Coghill wore many different hats. “I was incredibly excited about the way that the MU Office of…
May 14, 2021
#IAmScience Kulbir Sandhu
By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC Kulbir Sandhu’s curiosity had guided him from place to place, but it was his fascination with plant science that has stayed the same. While Sandhu has been a postdoctoral fellow in the Bing Yang lab at Bond Life Sciences Center for the past six months, his path towards plant science began when he was 18 years old in his home country of India. In high school, Sandhu was drawn to the biology route because of helpful and enthusiastic science teachers. He grew to like it as time went on…