A Day In The Life Of A Researcher At University Of Southern California
Daria's day as a graduate student and research assistant at USC varies, depending on the lab, but often involves a flexible schedule; today's activities included "bench work," specifically "immunohistochemistry," involving preparing slides for visualization, alongside writing, reading, and experimental planning. The overall experience reflects a balance of hands-on lab work and academic tasks, showcasing the typical blend of practical research and theoretical study in this career path.
Laboratory Work, Research Design, Data Analysis, Scientific Writing, Experimental Planning
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Undergrad
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Daria Timonina
Graduate Student / Research Assistant
University of Southern California
University of Arizona / 2015
University of Southern California
Biology & Related Sciences
Healthcare, Medical & Wellness
Research and Development (R&D)
Honors Student, Immigrant, First Generation College Student
Video Highlights
1. Flexible schedule: Daria mentions that many labs allow for some flexibility in scheduling, enabling her to start her day at 10:30.
2. Varied tasks: A day in Daria's life includes a mix of hands-on lab work (immunohistochemistry), data analysis, writing, and reading, offering a diverse range of responsibilities.
3. Experimental process: The description of the immunohistochemistry experiment provides insight into the type of research activities involved, including planning, execution, data processing, and result analysis.
Transcript
What does a day in the life of a graduate student and research assistant look like?
A day in the life can really vary. The experience you have on a day-to-day basis, along with the pros and cons, will depend on the lab.
Many labs allow you to decide your own schedule. Thankfully, I started at 10:30 today.
I went straight into some experiments I planned. I did some bench work called immunohistochemistry. This involves taking sections of slides and adding different antibodies to tag them.
This allows me to visualize where those proteins are later. I was setting that up today. After this, I'll do some writing and reading.
Once everything has incubated, I'll finish processing the slides to visualize them. This will allow me to continue the experiment for tomorrow, and then finally finish it and see the results.
Usually, a day is a variation of reading, writing, planning, and actually doing the experiment.
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