Researching Researchers

I have been wanting to visit Singapore's famous Biopolis for a while now to experience the multibillion dollar investment in biotechnology and its rumored international mixing pot of acclaimed faculty members. Finally this summer I am going to go talk to researchers there to study the nature of the global networks that connect researchers there to the rest of the world. I am excited about this opportunity to be involved in an entirely new project outside my expertise, to visit new places and meet new people, and think about science from a different perspective.

In talking to faculty members about my projects, I have so far received two dramatically different responses. One is exuberantly optimistic about the type of stories I'll be able to hear from people and how reasonable it would be to write a publishable article at the end. The other sits rather high in the ivory tower of academia and wonders why anyone thinks they can even attempt such a project without a background in the field. I have had a few good leads on people to talk to.. so I will barge ahead and see what happens..

Since I am working in a stem cell lab right now, my mentor suggested that I do some research on the members of my own lab. All together, I could put together an interesting comparative case on the high profile stem cell labs in the most prominent biomedical centers in the world.