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Name: Monica Rivera Company/School: Duke Position: PhD Candidate Degree(s) Earned: BS Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University '02
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What is your background in biotechnology?
Undergraduate Experiences
Space Telescope Science Institute- Independent Detector Testing Lab (STScI controls the Hubble Telescope among other things) Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Transgenic Mice Facility: lab technician summer interned for the Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative summer internships at Medtronic- Cardiac Surgery Technologies Division Current Research Atomic Force Microscope research What advice do you have for undergraduates looking for summer positions?
There are a lot of opportunities available for summer research- you just have to look for them. Job fairs, and campus recruiting are a good place to start. I would suggest talking to someone in your career center for opportunities that are available. Also, a lot of places include travel reimbursement so don’t preemptively narrow your search down because the company/university isn’t located near you. I’ve included the links to the PTEI and Medtronic summer internships above.
What did you do after graduating from Johns Hopkins University? I went directly into graduate school at Duke. What graduate schools did you apply to? Duke University, Johns Hopkins University, Case Western Reserve University What features impacted your decisions?
Research and stipend
What advice would you give to seniors applying to graduate school? If you are at all interested in getting your PhD., put this on your application. A lot of schools won’t fund Masters students because they aren’t getting enough research for their money. In other words, by the time they train you, you’ll be done. Also, I would base your decision on what kind of research you are hoping to do. You’ll be spending the next few years doing this, so you want to make sure that it’s something that you are interested in. What advice would you give an undergraduate applying for jobs? Intern at the company if you can. I have found that working as a summer intern is an excellent stepping stone into a company. Many of my fellow interns at Medtronic are now working there full time.
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