Alyona Haritonova

Physics and Pre-medicine, Class of 2009

April 2008 - Doing research at the College of St. Catherine gives me an opportunity to discover. I officially started in the summer of my freshman year. At that time I was working with Dr. Rochelle Pereira, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, on Knot theory. It became very clear that research was a great way to explore scientific theories. In class, professors give you a huge amount of material every day. In every subject, you only get a taste of background material; the best way to learn the details is to do research. During my sophomore year, I started working with our Physics department. Our agenda was to characterize diametric radiation from Jupiter. This was an extraordinary opportunity to work with two faculty members, Dr. Terry Flower and Erick Agrimson. It was an unbelievable experience! Every day I learned something new: One day it was parametrizing a knot, on another day it was collecting electromagnetic signals from Jupiter. Open-mindedness and persistence was the key to success.

This past summer, we had a chance to travel to the American Astronomical Society conference and present our research. Not only was there an opportunity to share my work, but we also saw the work of others from across the United States. There is a huge world out there with tons of things to see and learn. Through each discovery we make though our research, we make our way to a better future. My passion is to be able to help people. It is very important to apply my physics and astronomy knowledge in the medical field. Later, on I will return to Kyrgyzstan and help my people. Doing research at the College of St. Catherine was my first step to a bigger dream.

During Summer 2008, I will take part in a summer internship program at the Mayo Clinic. I will be working with Dr. Michael Romero in the Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Romero’s current research is on ion-solute movements across cell membrane. Membrane transporters, particularly in the kidneys, account for approximately 10% of mammalian genomes. His lab wants to understand this portion of the genome. This is a great opportunity for an undergraduate student!

In addition to working with Dr. Romero, there will be weekly seminars specifically for summer students and special summer activities which introduce undergraduate researchers to Mayo medical students.