Student Stories: Bryan Sisk

As a freshman entering Mizzou, I was clueless about how to get involved in research, so I asked one of my professors for advice. He readily provided the names of a few researchers whose work paralleled my interests and encouraged me to meet with them. Of course as a freshman this was very intimidating, but my fears quickly subsided when I entered Dr. Grace Sun's office. Dr. Sun assigned me to assist a post-doctoral research scientist as a volunteer.

During my first semester of research, I worked eight to nine hours a week without pay. I performed literature searches, assisted with animal microsurgeries, isolated different sections of the gerbil brain and performed immunohistochemical staining on cross sections of the brain. After participating in my first surgery, I was so excited that I bored everyone I knew with all of the details!

My passion for research grew after this first semester of research experience. However, I soon found that research and classes interfered with the possibility of an outside job. At the end of the semester I requested an hourly wage, and Dr. Sun graciously agreed. I was awarded CAFNR and LS UROP internships for my sophomore and junior years, respectively. I learned a great deal from these research projects, most notably the importance of asking questions and communicating with other members of the lab. I also learned many new experimental techniques, and presentation, application and interviewing skills in addition to the science related to my research area. I was very thankful for all of the guidance offered to me by lab members.

The experience I gained at Mizzou gave me a competitive advantage when I applied for a summer internship position at Pfizer-St. Louis. My mentor at Pfizer stated that my experience with the networking, planning and critical thinking associated with conducting a research project provided me with an edge over the competition.

After five semesters of research and three internships, I have grown very passionate about investigation and research in science. I have also experienced many of the pearls and pitfalls of research in both academic and industrial settings. The one truth which is pervasive in all research settings is that research can change from the most exciting to the most mundane and back again in a rather short time. The most trying aspect of research is the frustration of experimental failure and incorrect hypothesizing. Dealing with this frustration is a skill that is very hard learned; however one successful experiment will quickly make you feel better.

Undergraduate research at Mizzou has defined a great portion of my undergraduate career thus far and will assuredly assist me in future careers. I have been compensated many times over by the experience and opportunities which have resulted from my research experiences. I encourage all students with an interest to experiment by working in a research laboratory.