Scientific research at the 5Cs never stops, and professors are integral to keeping projects alive while students visit home, go on break and study abroad. Now that we know what STEM students do in Claremont all summer, it’s time to ask their professors about the value of student research.
Professor Aaron Leconte and Visiting Professor Taia Wu are Scripps-Pitzer natural science department faculty members who met while Wu was a student at Scripps working in Leconte’s lab. When Wu returned as a visiting professor, they realized their research overlapped and decided to start a joint lab.
According to Leconte, since undergraduates are newer to research and have less time to complete projects, the findings of multiple students are often combined into a single published research paper.
“The tricky bit is that experimental science is expensive,” Leconte wrote in email correspondence. “It requires equipment, materials and labor, all of which carry substantial costs. So I have to think a lot about how individual student projects fit into a broader narrative of my lab’s work that can lead to external funding and scientific publications.”
For Leconte, this work pays off when students transition from being consumers of knowledge to creators of knowledge.
“That transition requires you to learn a really different skill set and think really differently,” Leconte wrote. “A research experience is an invaluable and special opportunity to fully focus on developing the process of creating knowledge on a single problem. It’s a transformative experience for many.”
Avery Roof SC ’27 is spending her summer working in Leconte and Wu’s lab making DNA polymerase that can amplify modified DNA so that cells use it instead of degrading it. The lab will soon publish their findings, which will have applications in improving drug delivery.
Roof has been working in this lab for the past year and a half, but always during regular school hours, with classes and extracurriculars competing for her time. This summer has given her the opportunity to make significant progress in the lab and experience what independent full-time research feels like.
“[This summer] has given me a pretty good idea of how much work it is to work in a lab for eight hours a day,” Roof said. “It’s a lot different doing lab once a week for three hours, where things just move a lot slower. Here I have a lot of independence, so it’s really up to me how much progress I’m making. So, when there are big steps, it’s rewarding.”
Wu, a Scripps student researcher turned professor, now guides students such as Roof through the process. She describes the effect of more time in the lab on research — and the student.
“One of the great joys of being in research is that at the start, everything is new,” Wu said. “And then before you know it, you’ve built a lot of skills and a lot of confidence. It goes from seeming impossible to just being a thing that you’re able to do.”
Wu also argues that research gives students a taste of contributing to the growth of scientific knowledge. Not only does it build students’ knowledge and confidence, but it also enables them to add to the world’s overall knowledge with the goal of improving society. Written out, it seems obvious, but when the focus is on career-searching and where to spend one’s summer, this detail can get lost in the weeds.
“At some point during college or immediately after, for people who are studying science, you will realize that, mostly, we don’t know what’s going on,” Wu said. “And then as you start doing research, your goal is to figure out, ‘what does society need?’ What does your field still not know that is keeping society from going somewhere?”
So not only does research improve students’ abilities, but it also benefits society at large. These benefits mean that every professor I talked to suggested that every interested student try research for themselves.
“Everybody who possibly can, who’s maybe even slightly interested in what science can do for the world should try research, because it’s so much more,” Wu said. “I was amazed at how much more creative and versatile it was than classroom science.”
Malin Moeller SC ’27 has yet to take her natural science GE, but she still feels intense school pride every time she sees the Nucleus. Now, she’s cementing her STEM-groupie status with a column about summer research.
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