Rui Hu is an exchange student from Peking University in Beijing who has spent six months in Professor Meni Wanunu‘s lab at Northeastern University. Here she talks about her experiences as a graduate student researcher, working in Professor Wanunu’s lab, and living in Boston.
What made you select Northeastern and Dr. Meni Wanunu’s lab as your research destination for your exchange program?
I applied to the short term exchange program from Peking University, which aimed at promoting the international cooperation between different labs all over the world. The reason I chose Northeastern University is because it has good facilities and a beautiful campus. The university also provides a free environment for researchers, which is attractive to me. The reason I chose Meni’s lab is because Meni is among the top scientists in solid state nanopore field. Meni and his lab have published a lot of good quality papers which have helped me a lot when I started in this field. Last year, Meni visited my lab in Peking University and I gave a presentation to him. He gave me some really good comments. His rich knowledge about solid state nanopore and his creativity impress me a lot.
What was your favorite part about working in Meni’s lab and Northeastern?
I really enjoyed the days I spent in Meni’s lab and Northeastern. It’s hard for me to pick the most favorite part because there were so many wonderful times I appreciate. I like the moments when Meni and other colleagues help me when I had troubles in experiments. They gave me a lot of suggestions and extended my knowledge about nanopore. I like the group meeting we had every two weeks. After the delicious bagel breakfast together, we started to present the results we got in the previous two weeks. It’s really a good chance share and communicate with Meni and other colleagues. They make comments and ask questions about my experiment which helped me keeping the whole experiment on the right way!
