The money will enable Hopkins to double its number of summer fellows, to 25. Undergraduates who are selected for the program spend the summer working with veteran scientists, gaining valuable research experience. About 60 students have completed the fellowship program since it began in 1989. Another innovation is the addition of Introduction to Laboratory Research in Biophysics. The new course, which will be taught by Dr. Lin, fills a void in undergraduate education by giving students a firm working knowledge of advanced laboratory techniques.
Undergrads usually learn advanced laboratory skills by joining a research laboratory.
Unfortunately, it might take a full year for the student to become proficient while working in a lab. I will introduce the students to a solid core of modern basic research techniques. After this intensive training period, when they get into a lab, they will already be able to do a lot of things. It makes them a lot more valuable to research laboratories. They will do experiments that are modeled after classic research experiments.