Aresty Experience Comes Full Circle for Dr. Jennifer Sun

Chancellor Francine Conway highlighted former Aresty Research Assistant, Dr. Jennifer Sun. 

"Dr. Jennifer Sun took full advantage of our Aresty Research Center for Undergraduates at Rutgers University when she was an undergrad. 

Dr. Sun says the Aresty program changed the course of her studies, career, and life. She wrote her first (successful!) grant proposal as a freshman. Throughout her undergraduate career at Rutgers, NB she participated in research that spanned so many branches of science—from learning about insects and their parasites, to what she calls “hardcore chemistry,” to studies on dementia. And she developed long-lasting relationships with faculty mentors including Distinguished Professor G. Charles Dismukes. 

‘All those experiences helped me to have the tendency to be a scientist and realize that science was what I wanted to do,’ Dr. Sun said recently.

After graduating from Rutgers, NB in 2013 with a BA in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, she went on to Yale where she earned her MS and Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology—and now she is back at Rutgers as a President Postdoctoral Research Fellow.

Perhaps best of all, Dr. Sun is giving back by mentoring students in her lab through Aresty and other undergraduate research programs we offer, like the Research in Microbiology Program. 

These photos show her with two of those students: Tia Hart, a junior majoring in Biology who plans to earn her Ph.D. in either cancer or infectious disease research, and Nicholas Johnson, a Microbiology major who plans to work in the industrial microbiology field after he graduates in January."