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After undergrad, I started looking for work. I applied at fermilab for a position as a beam operator; that would have been amazing. I also applied at a couple other national labs. I ended up getting hired by a small company in Indianapolis but was one of the first people laid off during major lay offs only a month into employment. This was just before Christmas, and I decided to start thinking about graduate school. I looked at a few schools in Florida because my husband (fiance at the time) has family there. I also looked at schools in Chicago and here at IUPUI. I wasn't sure what I wanted to go into. I knew that I was good at math but never got around to taking the math GRE because I just wasn't interested in going to grad school for math. I took the physics GRE twice and sucked, so I decided I probably wasn't meant to stick with hardcore physics (although I knew IU-Bloomington would take me back). So I started thinking about what my other interests were. I've always loved the weather. I used to watch the weather channel all the time. So I applied to this really awesome meteorology program at University of Miami. Also, when I was talking to my undergrad advisor about it, he recommended that I look into the Biophysics program here at IUPUI because he had a student who had moved up here and had great success in the program. So I did a search online and found that they had just reorganized the program, and it was now the Biophysics and Biomolecular Imaging Program. I remembered that I really like playing with the telescopes, and I knew microscopes where pretty much the same thing. I was accepted to both programs. I had a wonderful visit to Miami, but honestly, I was really nervous about moving there. I had a really hard time picturing my husband and I living and working in Miami. Also, when I arrived for my visit, they had already chosen my advisor and project. I thought that was a little shady. Then I came to visit IUPUI. I really enjoyed the tour of the Indiana Center for Biological Microscopy, especially the neat microscopes. And I liked the fact that I could do a rotation over the first year to find a good project and advisor. I was a little worried about it being a new program and me being the first student, but at the same time, I thought it would be neat to get to help shape my program rather than being confined to the rigid guidelines of an established program. Miami offered me more money, but my husband said that if we stayed here, we could probably afford to buy a house. That clinched. And my mom is here, and it probably would have killed her for me to move that far away although she was very good and never mentioned it. I'm now starting my third year and am happy to say that we did buy the house just after I started school. It is awesome! I also really enjoy the research I'm doing. I did 4 rotations, and Ken was my fourth. I just never left his lab. As for coursework, catching up on all the biology was really hard since I have no background in it, but I got through it and did pretty well considering. Now I'm pretty much done with coursework although I do have a couple more credit hours that I need and am hoping to fulfill with seminar courses. So to anyone considering school here at IUPUI, I highly recommend it. And if you are curious what it will be like to be a grad student. Check out www.phdcomics.com. I swear Jorge must have a video camera in my lab. Cheers, Pam
Muriello
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My name is Pam Muriello, and I am a graduate student studying Biophysics and
Biomolecular Imaging at Indiana University School of Medicine. The focus
of my research is the effects of spherical aberration on multiphoton microscopy
in deep tissue imaging. My advisor is Ken Dunn, the scientific director of
the Indiana Center for Biological Microscopy. My background includes a
B.S. in Physics with Departmental Honors and a B.S. in Mathematics from
IU-Bloomington. I also minored in Astronomy where I really liked playing
with telescopes on the roof of the building. 