Georgetown College. Georgetown University.

The Roepe laboratories, which are located both on the main campus and at the medical center, are bustling with activity and people. Dr. Roepe has co-appointments in Georgetown College’s chemistry department as well as in the Medical Center’s biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology department. Georgetown, with both a liberal arts undergraduate campus and a medical center on the same site, provide unique opportunities for undergraduates to do research. Roepe’s colleagues in the Medical Center have been very helpful in providing opportunities for undergraduates.

Typically, Roepe’s laboratories support one or more postdoctoral fellows, 9-10 graduate students and 3-4 undergraduates. His graduate students play a key role in mentoring undergraduates. The undergraduates learn fundamentals of science in their classwork, but in the lab, as Roepe describes, “light bulbs go off”, as the students apply these fundamentals to research. “It’s a wonderful thing to see these kids suddenly get it, as they use book learning in real world cutting edge research !” Roepe has a firm commitment to educating undergraduates through the research process, even though it may take several years for the research to actually benefit from the contributions of undergraduates.

Many of Roepe’s publications include results that the undergraduates have obtained, including recent publications in the journal Biochemistry. But more than the experiments they conduct, undergraduates are “enthusiastic and fun—they liven up the lab!” In the Spring of 2006, undergraduates included Katherine Sullivan (C ‘06), Elisabeth Pordes (C ‘06), Trevor Wells (C ‘06), Vaishali Amin (C ‘07), Shaan Kataria (C ‘07), all from Chemistry, and Ben Vacarro (C ‘06) from Biology. All four graduating seniors received honors from their departments. In addition, Sullivan was awarded the prestigious Katherine Kraft medal, and Kataria received a GUROP. All four seniors began attending top medical schools in the fall of 2006: Sullivan (Indiana); Pordes (Northwestern); Wells (University of Southern California); Vacarro (Columbia).

Roepe believes that undergraduate education is an important part of a scientist’s role. Undergraduates that have the determination and talent to keep up with the challenging pace of his lab learn skills that last throughout their careers, whether they become medical doctors, researchers, or enter other specialties within science. Roepe explains: “Undergraduates come to Georgetown wanting to change the world . . . we capture that interest and enthusiasm by defining real world problems for them, but also by having fun! Research is very difficult work. Over 1 million children die of malaria, and few things are more horrible. So our lab is an incredibly serious place, but over the years, I have learned that for whatever reason, some students make better progress when they are allowed to blow off steam when they wish, by playing rock and roll music in the lab, and other things. So the lab is typically as lively as it is serious … what could be a better way to capture students’ interest?!”

Print Article