AS AN UNDERGRADUATE, WHY CHOOSE NEW MEXICO TECH TO STUDY BIOLOGY?
When it comes to picking a school
to study biology you have 3 choices:
Large universities
Small to medium sized liberal arts colleges
New Mexico Tech
Large universities are focused on
graduate research. While these are good places to get a PhD,
they may not be the right choice to study at the undergraduate
level. Here are two reasons why:
Large class sizes.
At large universities many freshmen courses have more than 150
students in a class. In this environment many students
struggle without individual attention and can ‘slip though the
cracks’. In this atmosphere there is very little
opportunity to get to know your professors on a one-on-one basis
which is a key first step to developing a mentor-student
relationship.
Limited opportunities for undergraduates to participate in research projects.
While there is a great deal of research being performed at
theses institutions most of the research opportunities are for
graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.
Small liberal arts colleges have
the small class sizes that are critical for receiving individual
attention and facilitating mentor-mentee relationships, but they
generally lack strong research programs. Hands on
participation in a research program at the undergraduate level
greatly aids in your development as a biologist and will
facilitate your acceptance into the medical school or graduate
school of your choice.
New Mexico Tech is unique in that we offer
both small class size(typically fewer than 25 students per class) and
many opportunities for undergraduates to participate in research.
Every faculty member at Tech is expected to include
undergraduates in their research program. Many of our
undergraduates publish their research results.
Here are some of the ongoing research projects that undergraduates have taken part in last
year:
·
Dr. Tom Kieft:
1)
Development of an ultra-sensitive
assay to detect Prions (Mad Cow) in food.
2)
Isolation and characterization of
bacteria from extreme environments, e.g., deep (>3 km) ground water and hot desert soils.
·
Dr. Kevin Kirk
1)
Resource competition, caloric
restriction and the resulting increase in life span.
·
Dr. Rebecca Reiss:
1)
Detection of pollutants in ground
water.
2)
Isolating and sequencing ancient
DNA.
·
Dr. Snezna Rogelj:
1)
The effect of tetra-hydro-cannabinol
(the active ingredient in marijuana) on immune function.
2)
Characterization of contaminants
that are found in commercially available antibiotics.
3)
Developing methods to study and
control bio-film formation (bio-films are important in hospital
borne infections, water filtration systems and biotechnology, to
name just a few applications of this research).
4)
Developing novel systems for
detecting pathogens such as
Streptococcus pyogenes (‘the flesh eating bacteria’),
E. coli O157:H7
(the killer E. coli),
and Campylobacter.
·
Dr. Scott T. Shors:
1)
How viruses inactivate the innate
immune response.
2)
Developing novel anti-viral,
anti-bacterial and anti-cancer drugs (in collaboration with Dr.
Rogelj and Dr. Kornienko, Chemistry Department at New Mexico
Tech).
·
Dr. Al Smoake:
1)
The role of calcium binding proteins
in basic human physiology.
More
details about these research programs can be found here
