Kyung Shin
Being a researcher is like an addiction to find out what questions to ask next.
When I graduated high school I decided that when I started university, I didn’t want to move far away from home. I wanted to focus on my academics and go to a highly regarded research school with plenty of opportunities. For me, Dalhousie was the obvious choice.
I was drawn to biochemistry and microbiology because I really wanted to know more about what happens inside our bodies. There are so many things happening on a scale that we can’t easily observe. I had so many questions that I wanted to ask, and that curiosity is what led me into my PhD studies.
I was very fortunate to be able to work in labs during my summers in undergrad. I loved the independence my supervisors gave me to explore and learn new things on my own terms. I knew that as soon as I finished my undergraduate degree, I wanted to do graduate studies. In my PhD, the ability to create my own experiments and interact with other people working in the same field inspires me. It’s like an addiction. It’s what keeps me up at night and what gets me up in the morning. It gets me out the door so that I can understand more and find out what questions I need to ask next.
I know research is the place for me, and that’s why I intend to become a professor once I’m finished my PhD studies. My experience at Dalhousie has been great, and I know being at Dal has allowed me to grow in ways I might not have anywhere else.
This article appears in Feb 23 – Mar 1, 2017.
