I've had the pleasure of working in four quite different lab settings at Harvard, but I've finally settled down in the Vision Lab in the Department of Psychology to write my senior thesis. There, I work on topics related to visual cognition; I'm particularly interested in understanding the way our mind represents its uncertainty about [low-level object features in] the world.
I was drawn to the Lab Rep program in order to understand and mitigate the special challenge that lab research environments present to university sustainability efforts, the 'double whammy' of being particularly resource-intensive spaces where resource conservation and efficiency tend to take the back seat to research pace.
Can undergrads make a real impact in lab sustainability? Well, I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't believe it! As undergrads, we bring a special blend of idealism, enthusiasm, and insight that comes with being junior members of the research community. And as members of a future generation of scientists, I think it's great that Harvard is cultivating a sense of environmental responsibility in its youngest researchers!
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As members of a future generation of scientists, I think it's great that Harvard is cultivating a sense of environmental responsibility in its youngest researchers!