Chloe Archuleta, a chemical and biochemical engineering major at Mines, has had a busy start to her senior year. In addition to her coursework obligations, Chloe is president of the Mines’ chapter of the Society of Women Engineers, holds down two on-campus jobs, and is conducting research for course credit in the labs of two faculty members. We sat down with Chloe to talk a little more about her research experience at Mines.
What research are you involved with at Mines?
I work with Dr. Diego Gómez-Gualdrónworking on a computational study of advanced catalytic interfaces at nanoparticles encapsulated in nanoporous materials. I also work with Dr. Keith Neeves designing, fabricating, and operating microfluidic assays to measure platelet function under blood flow.
Have you done research at any other institutions?
I was a research intern at the University of Pennsylvania during the summer, working under Dr. Rodney Camire and Dr. Ben Samelson-Jones at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. I developed and characterized coagulation factor VIII variants for hemophilia A inhibitor studies.
What has been the outcome of your research? Have you presented at any conferences or poster sessions?
I presented a poster of my work with Dr. Gómez-Gualdrón at the Mines Undergraduate Research Symposium. I lectured my work with Dr. Camire at the Leadership Alliance National Symposium, presented a poster at the University of Pennsylvania SUIP Research Symposium, and presented a poster at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students.
What have you enjoyed most from your undergraduate research experience?
I have loved learning topics and skills I would have never gotten from my classes. I really enjoy working in a lab and it is so exciting when you finally get something to work. It’s also really cool working with a graduate group that is often the only ones in the world working on that specific project and seeing them reach breakthroughs and publishing papers is really inspiring.
How did you find out about the research projects you have been involved with?
Dr. Gómez-Gualdrónsent out a call for undergraduate researchers within the CBE department and I was interested in the challenge of learning computational work. I had Dr. Neeves as a professor and liked how he worked with blood and biomedical engineering, so I simply sent him an email and he set something up for me the following semester. I learned about my research internship from another CBE professor and chose my lab based on my interest of biochemistry.
Chloe Archuleta presents her findings
What recommendations do you have for students who want to get involved in research?
My advice is to start as soon as you can, especially if you’re interested in graduate school, even if you’re a freshman! It can be really intimidating approaching a professor you’ve never met before, but I promise they are really nice and appreciate the initiative! The worst they can do is say no, and that’s usually because they simply don’t have lab space.