Sophomore Sayed Hassan has always been interested in neuroscience and knew from early on in his first year at Colgate University that he wanted to do research in this field. During the second semester of his first year, he proactively asked his professors about research opportunities and looked at research positions on the student employment page over the summer.

He eventually got the chance to work under Assistant Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences Anzela Niraula. His research under Niraula consists of using immunofluorescence to identify the relationship between macrophages, immune cells present in the brain that play a crucial role in maintaining our health and responding to injury or infection and observing the effects of removing these cells on the body. 

Though Hassan just started this semester, he has already learned a lot about how research is actually conducted. Before this experience, Hassan had a very baseline understanding of what research is. He assumed that if you have an idea for research you can simply go straight into experimenting. However, his research this semester has highlighted that the backend work of research is crucial. There is a lot of pre-experiment and post-experiment work that is involved, and it is essential to be meticulous with these aspects before experimenting. His work has also made him comfortable with the idea that it is alright if experiments do not work out as planned. 

Hassan’s research experience has reaffirmed his choice to go into the field of neuroscience. He explained that though the brain controls all of our bodily functions and holds all our knowledge, we still do not know much about it. 

“What drives me towards neuroscience is the unknown,” Hassan said. 

His research has provided him with the ability to discover more about the enigma that is the brain and contextualized his learning in neuroscience classes to practice. Learning about neuroscience in class is very different from applying it, and the ability to see concepts play out through his research has been fascinating for him. 

“Being able to apply the knowledge in class has continued my interest,” Hassan explained. 

Hassan is considering the pre-med track, with aspirations of continuing his study of neuroscience after undergraduate school. He believes that understanding the brain is fundamental. Currently, Hassan is roughly doing six hours of research a week on top of his academic and extracurricular commitments. While this might seem like a lot, Hassan has learned to balance everything and strongly urges other Colgate students to take advantage of the myriad of research opportunities on campus. 

“We are lucky to be at an institution that allows for undergraduate students to do research at this level. If we have these opportunities in place then we should definitely take advantage of them,” Hassan said. 

Hassan believes that Colgate students are fortunate to be here as many of the opportunities we have on campus would be unimaginable at other institutions. He urges everyone to explore various options to see what interests them. Hassan also emphasizes the importance of attending office hours and related department events to discover available research opportunities. Furthermore, he encourages students to build rapport with their professors and to stay up to date with the student employment portal. Like Hassan, we can all have the chance to do research that interests us, it is just a matter of finding the right opportunity.