Faculty Spotlights
Faculty Spotlight: Margaret Dietrich, Cell and Molecular Biology
What are your undergraduate research mentor experiences?
Student Summer Scholars, GVSU Grant-in-Aid, & research mentor for many students doing research for credit.
Would you briefly explain the focus of some of the most recent research you have mentored students in?
I am interested in how multicellular organisms (in my case, plants) develop predictable shapes and structures. Such development requires that cells receive signals, both environmental and physiological, and then respond appropriately. I have recently mentored students in two main plant projects: 1) determining the role of a protein that senses calcium ions and is critical to flower development and 2) understanding a moss mutation that results in the plant being unable to complete its life cycle.
Why is mentoring undergraduate research an important component of your work?
As an undergraduate, I fell into biological research in an atypical way – as a non-science major washing dishes in a research lab. I was entranced watching the others work – they weren’t just smart facts-wise, they were using information to then actively learn more via their experiments. I was amazed to find I could do the same. I want to give our students the same opportunity to learn how to use information to put the pieces of the puzzle together - valuable and far-reaching skills no matter what their future plans are, and it’s a lot of fun.
If a student is interested in your field of research, what are some suggestions or tips you might share with them to help them get more involved and/or better prepared to engage in this type of research?
My work is more cellular and molecular in nature, so while I wouldn’t be expecting hands-on experience beforehand, you would want to be interested in DNA, RNA, and proteins and how they work and be able to talk about them at the BIO 120 level. Some comfort with basic chemistry in terms of making solutions is helpful. While I am a plant biologist, a strong plant interest isn’t required as my ‘big picture’ question is applicable to both plants and animals. The main thing is to have a basic interest and a willingness to learn and work.
Who are some of your previous mentees, and what are they doing now?
Past Student Summer Scholars: Mitch Roth will be starting a PhD program at MSU Fall 2014, Misty van Brocklin is a high school substitute teacher in the UP, Emily Henk is employed by Alticor, Ilea Swinehart finished a PhD at the U of MI, April Rebert was in the Peace Corps and now works for Alaska Fish & Game in Juneau, and Joe DeVol has an IT tech position in New York City. Some other research students: Krista Geister (PhD at the U of MI) is a post doc in the U of WA Dept of Pediatrics in Genetic Medicine at Seattle Children’s Hospital and Hank Haringsma works at Clovis Oncology Inc., a biotech start-up in the San Francisco area.
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