Estelle Hrabak is an associate professor in the 部门 of molecular, 细胞, and biomedical sciences. Below is our correspondence with Dr. 赫拉巴克讲述了她自己的研究和指导本科生的经历.
调查: What is your research focus? 你的本科学习或一位重要的导师是否影响了你的研究轨迹? What interests you most about it?
I am a plant biologist and study the plant Arabidopsis thaliana or mouse-eared cress, the first plant to have its genome sequenced. 我一直对学习细胞传递信息和调节细胞内通讯的方式很感兴趣. Over the years, 我研究了几种参与调节细胞信号传导过程的酶:蛋白质激酶(向蛋白质添加磷酸基的酶), protein phosphatases (enzymes that reverse the action of kinases), and protein S-acyl transferases (enzymes that add fatty acids to proteins).
几位导师影响了我作为科学家的发展，但我在这里只提到其中两位. While an undergraduate at Michigan State University (MSU), I worked for almost four years in a mycology lab with Professor Edward Cantino. Even though I had almost no research experience, he took a chance on me. I was the only undergrad in his lab, which was a little intimidating at first, but others in the lab did a great job teaching me everything that I needed to know, including the basics of experimental design, 分析, and of course the techniques themselves. After graduation, I spent seven years as a research technician in the Microbiology Department at MSU, primarily in the lab of Dr. Frank Dazzo. As a technician, my job was basically to perform experiments described in Dr. 达佐的拨款提案，但如果我有额外的时间，我可以尝试一些我自己的想法. 其中一个副业变成了第一作者论文，这让我非常兴奋. Dr. Dazzo还为我支付了参加研究会议(包括在美国和国外)的费用，以展示我们的工作. The confidence that he showed in me encouraged me to think about completing a Ph.D. and having my own lab someday.
调查: What is the purpose of a mentoring relationship? What should the student and you gain from it?
我指导本科生的目标之一是帮助他们对我们的系统有足够的了解，这样我们就可以讨论科学，交流思想，摆脱标准的学生/老师关系. 我希望学生们对科学以及他们自己的研究如何融入更大的图景感到兴奋. We both gain something important from our interactions; the student becomes more confident in their abilities as a researcher and I often get new ideas from questions they ask or from an unexpected experimental result.
我的另一个目标是，在学生们考虑大学毕业后的下一步时，成为他们的支持来源，并在他们的申请中作为参考. 许多无形的技能是通过研究获得的，即使学生不打算从事研究工作，这些技能也是有益的, 因此，我的部分职责是帮助他们了解如何将他们的实验室经验应用于其他情况. Undergraduates from my lab have gone to professional schools (medical, 兽医, physician assistant), graduate schools, or directly into the workforce, 对我来说，无论他们毕业后选择做什么，帮助他们迈出下一步都是很有成就感的.
调查: Please describe one or two memorable mentoring experiences or mentees.
这是一个很难回答的问题，因为我在UNH期间指导过80多名本科生，不可能只选择一两个学生来谈论. 我喜欢指导的一个方面是帮助学生将他们的成果转化为联合国大学本科生研究会议或其他会议的口头或海报展示. 挑战在于如何有效地传达他们的结果，这通常需要退后一步，在更广泛的背景下思考他们的研究. Communicating results is a critical part of the research process; it is important to learn to create understandable figures or tables for a presentation and to be able to explain your results in both layman’s terms and scientific terms. I like guiding students through that process, as well as collaborating on design, 布局, and color scheme to create an attractive final product. 当我看着我的学员展示他们的海报或演讲时，我总是很自豪，因为我反思他们在相对较短的时间内取得了多少成就.
调查: Please describe any difficulties or problems you have had in mentoring undergraduates.
On rare occasions, a student finds that wet lab research is not a good fit for them. If I notice that the student seems less engaged than before, I have a conversation to find out if there is a problem. Sometimes it’s a personal issue. Sometimes it’s time management or taking on too many commitments to handle. Sometimes they find that research itself is more challenging than they expected. 有时学生发现他们对另一种类型的研究更感兴趣. This is often an unsettling time for the student, and they may be reluctant to talk to me about their feelings, fearing that I will be upset or disappointed in them. A small number of students have simply ghosted me, 这不是最好的解决方案，因为现在他们已经断了一条将来可能派上用场的桥. For most students in this situation, we discuss the situation and part amicably, 如果对他们有帮助的话，我可以继续以其他方式指导他们.
调查: 对于刚接触本科生指导和/或正在寻找导师的本科生，你会给他们什么建议或提示?
对于刚接触师徒关系的教师来说，不要仅仅根据学生的成绩来选择他们. 我很幸运地选择了那些已经证明他们可以在参加一两个课外活动的同时保持成绩的学生.g., undergrad TA or officer in a student organization). 接下来，给自己一些时间去寻找适合自己性格的导师风格. 最后，要意识到指导是很耗时的，但对我来说，回报是绝对值得的.
对于寻找导师的本科生来说，如果你之前没有实验室经验，也不要担心. 大多数教师不希望学生有之前的培训，他们通常更喜欢“白纸一张”，这样他们就可以教你以他们喜欢的方式在他们的实验室里做事. 在你亲自或通过电子邮件联系他们之前，你是否应该先从他们的网站上了解一下他们的研究. If you get an interview for a research position, DO ask questions about the research and DON’T be afraid to say that you don’t understand something or would like information repeated; this is a desirable quality in a lab worker. If you decide that research isn’t for you (which happens) or want to change labs, DON’T ghost your mentor; instead, have a conversation with them about the change in your interests.
调查: Please feel free to add anything else you would like to share with 调查’s audience.
When I was looking for faculty positions, 我想在一所重视本科生研究的大学找到一份工作，这样我就可以把我在职业生涯早期的美好经历传承下去. UNH has strong infrastructure (Hamel Center for Undergraduate 研究, 本科生研究会议)，以支持想要一起做研究的学生和教师. UNH turned out to be a great fit for me!
