The email came this morning, and although expected, it brought a great sense of satisfaction and joy. CURE Plastics alumnus Ben Stenson’s paper is officially out now, published in the excellent undergraduate research paper Fine Focus: https://openjournals.bsu.edu/finefocus/article/view/3322
Ben was my student in a microbiology class and he was interested in doing research, so he was one of the first undergrads joining the project in 2018. Over a year or so, he became responsible for prepping the plastic material for the sampling (a long and tedious process) and helping out during the field trips. He had many wide-ranging ideas of individual projects, and finally settled on looking at the chemical degradation part. And one day he came up with the microcosm idea. I won’t lie, I was skeptical. Not sure about the logistics and the whole setup, I decided to let Ben run the show. Which he did quite successfully.
There were hiccups along the way, issues that were simple to solve, and others that were more complicated. As a mentor, I was delighted to see the progress from enthusiasm mixed with lack of expertise to a more solid, robust understanding of what scientific research was about. And when it was time to write and analyze, it was great to see how much could be extracted from data, as long as they were recorded and saved.
The review process was fun too. As a first timer experiencing “revise and resubmit,” Ben was dejected while I was elated. For me, it also gave me the opportunity of putting in writing the disciplined steps of addressing a revision, from tackling the low-hanging fruit first to the “be courteous to the reviewers” mantra.
With this publication, we are closing a cycle. Ben is a graduate now, although he expressed he was looking a masters in chemistry. And I told him how we were planning to look more in depth at the degradation part because…(I guess that would be a good topic for another posting). So the story continues. But in the meantime, congrats, Ben!
