Vol. 5, No. 1: Spring/Summer 2009
The Joys, Trials, and Tribulations of Scientific Inquiry
A Science, Technology and Research Scholar graduates from IU with four years of research experience
Yun William Yu of Huntingburg, Indiana, graduates this spring Phi Beta Kappa with majors in chemistry, mathematics, and Germanic studies. He also leaves Bloomington with the enviable experience of four full years of laboratory research guided by faculty mentors, as a participant in the Integrated Freshman Learning Experience (IFLE) and IU Science, Technology and Research Scholars Program (IU STARS). STARS matches qualified freshmen in the sciences with faculty members who guide their development as researchers for the next four years. IFLE gives freshmen a summer research experience before their freshmen year and an inquiry-based freshman course.
STARS scholarships are open to students in all the sciences, while IFLE offers support to biology, biochemistry, and behavioral neuroscience majors.
Yu, a Herman B Wells and Barry M. Goldwater scholar, has been awarded a 2009 Marshall Scholarship, sponsored by the British government, that will enable him to pursue master’s degrees in computational biology, at the University of Cambridge, and biomedical physical chemistry, at Imperial College London, after graduation from IU. Yu has this to say about his experience with the STARS program:
“It was the director of the STARS program who first pointed me to [the late] Professor [J. Michael] Walker, in whose lab I spent countless hours experiencing firsthand the joys, trials, and tribulations of scientific inquiry. Before coming to IU, I had nary a clue what research actually was; four years later I find myself preparing to matriculate at a graduate science program. My experience in lab not only has been the crux of all my graduate school applications, but pointed me in the direction of a career path I probably otherwise wouldn’t have considered. STARS and IFLE both function to place students in research labs, which has for me been one of the defining happenstances of my undergraduate career.”
