Hey there! John Stair here. I’m a research intern in the Early Undergraduate Research and Knowledge Acquisition (EUREKA!) program. This summer I’m working with the Gordon Group in the Department of Chemical Engineering at UCSB on understanding how surfaces radiate thermal energy. In this post I’m going to focus less on what I’m researching and more on who I’m researching with.

I was expecting this research experience to be like another internship I participated in. I spent an entire summer working in a room full of people that I never heard a word out of; my current research group could not be more different. The graduate and undergraduate students in my lab, like siblings, poke fun at each other and joke around. My professor guides them like a father, not withholding a few well-timed dad jokes. When we break one of our toys (err, instruments?), he pops into his machine shop and rigs up a fix. He is responsible for our growing as researchers as our individual parents were responsible for our growing as people. Everyone in our lab works, eats, laughs, and learns as a family unit… and they’ve already included me. Everyone depends on each other’s experience and knowledge to make progress in their work. Because they all depend on each other, expectations are high, but they’ll go the mile to help. Being welcomed into such an interesting and passionate group has made a great impression on me about academia and research.

When I first came to UCSB there was a huge push to drill the fact that we were a dedicated “research university,” but I thought that there were just hyping themselves up like most colleges do. But what I’ve discovered – and I think this holds for many of our professors here at UCSB – was that my mentor didn’t just want labor out of me. He actively tries to keep me interested and engaged, even when it’s a slow time around the lab. I’ve noticed a real interest in making educated and passionate learners and investigators out of undergraduates, a facet of UCSB life that may be hard to find elsewhere.

If you were looking for specifics on my project, my next post may be what you’re looking for. Yes Dr. Gordon, I’ll even throw in some data for you.

Until next time,
John