Getting your Foot in the Door:
Lab Assistant Positions at IU

By Kristy Hentchel

For many students, being an undergraduate lab assistant is an excellent way to gain valuable hands-on experience and build relationships with others in their fields of study. There are many resources available to help students find out about lab assistant positions, including their professors and Associate Instructors (AI), as well as resources provided by the Career Development Center and the Biology Club.

Explained senior Peter Gracheck, “I found out about a lab position through Dr. Kehoe [Molecular Biology L211 professor]. He told me about L490 when I was visiting him at office hours and encouraged me to explore it.”

L490 Independent Study is an option for students to take an independent course for credit and is planned and prepared on an individual basis. Often, if the student is interested in gaining lab experience, he or she may use enrollment in L490 to work as a lab assistant. According to the IU Department of Biology Undergraduate website, “L490 Independent Study gives students introductory experience with a research program, allows intensive inquiry into a field of study, prepares students for postgraduate study, and fulfills Honors Degree requirements.”

Elizabeth Middleton, a Ph.D. student who expects to graduate in 2009, suggests that students work in labs as undergraduates to find out whether they are interested in lab work and to explore different research areas. This allows students to see if they enjoy lab work before they commit to working there as graduate students or in their future jobs.

There are many options regarding school credit, possible payment options, time spent in the lab, and tasks performed for each individual position. Most positions require an application, and there will likely be an interview process. Talking to the professor in charge or the graduate student running the lab will give each student a better understanding of the particular position they are interested in pursuing.

Lab assistant positions vary in the tasks performed; tasks can range from working with transcription of a prokaryote in different lighting conditions, data entry, lab clean up, field work, or slide preparation and microscope work.

“I washed pots for a whole week. That wasn’t terribly stimulating, but it needed to be done,” said Middleton. “The thing about science is that there are a lot of little jobs that have to be figured out before you can make that interesting conclusion. A student has to be willing to be involved in the little details that contribute to that conclusion.” 

Many students’ lab assistant positions help them in deciding the course of their futures and allow them to gain valuable hands-on lab experience. Explained Middleton, “The experience helped me formulate a plan for my future. I learned how to think like a scientist, learned about data analysis and hypothesis formation and testing. Critical thinking skills are an essential part of a position as those that hire you want you to be engaged and thinking about the project you are involved in.”

It is also a general consensus that the positive aspect of applying the skills and concepts learned in the classroom to a real-life setting is great. Recent graduate Jonathan Willet, who has begun working towards his Ph.D. in microbiology at the University of Iowa, said, “A big drawback to class is that teachers throw experiments into a lecture, and it is very difficult to see a practical application. Being in lab, however, makes a class one hundred times easier. Getting exposed to the lab environment daily I think gave me an experience very different from most undergraduates.”

The unique experiences, application of knowledge, and personal connections with faculty and peers gained from time spent working in a lab help students to excel in their fields and their future endeavors. As Willet said, “I truly don’t know what I would do after college if it wasn’t for my time in lab.”

For more information on additional research opportunities and experiences available to undergraduates, visit http://www.bio.indiana.edu/undergrad/opportunities/index.html.