CV – Rebecca J. Carlson

Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI | May 2017

GPA: 4.0/4.0

B.S. Chemical Engineering, Concentration: Biochemical Engineering. Minor, Chinese.

Evergrande Scholar in Dr. Vijay Kuchroo’s Lab, Harvard Medical School

June-August 2016

Took course on cutting-edge immunology research led by Harvard Medical School faculty
Examined role of Tim-1 in regulatory B cells through characterization of conditional knockout mice
Summarized and interpreted data using FlowJo and an original dimensionality reduction analysis pipeline (Barnes-Hut SNE followed by hierarchical clustering in R)

Summer Research Intern in Dr. Iain Fraser’s Lab, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH

May-August 2015

Independently developed scripts in R to analyze high-content imaging data of human and mouse macrophages, reducing analysis time
Conceptualized and implemented data visualization methods (violin plots, heatmaps, PCA, tSNE)
Conducted experiments to characterize key results of a genome-wide siRNA screen

Research Assistant in Dr. S. Patrick Walton’s Lab, Michigan State University

September 2013-Present

Collaboratively investigated siRNA functional asymmetry by analyzing strand loading and activity
Assisted in expressing, purifying, and assessing bioactivity of brain-derived neurotrophic factor from B. choshinensis
Designed procedure for synthesis of an EGFP siRNA library; currently examining library binding to key RNAi protein to determine features predictive of activity
Currently working on original project, examining features that lead to cell-type-specific differences in CRISPR-mediated editing
Principal research mentor of an undergraduate student since September 2016

NSF Graduate Research Fellow 2017
Fannie & John Hertz Foundation Fellow 2017
Student Service Award, Michigan State University College of Engineering 2017
First place, National AIChE Student Design Competition, team category 2016
Phi Beta Kappa 2016
Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship (awarded as a sophomore) 2015-2017
Hanna M. Rasmussen Alumni Distinguished Scholarship, full academic merit scholarship 2013-2017
American Institute of Chemical Engineers Annual Meeting, 3rd place poster in Food, Pharmaceutical, and Biotechnology category 2015
University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum, 1st place poster in Engineering, Computer Science, and Mathematics category 2014
Professorial Assistantship (2-year paid research appointment awarded to top 1% of students) 2013

April 2015-Present

Promoted undergraduate research through facilitation of workshops and blog articles
Worked with team of ambassadors to provide new opportunities for student involvement in research

Tutor, College of Engineering Residential Experience (CoRe)

August 2014-Present

Leader, Engineering Professorial Assistant (PA) Program

September 2014-Present

Led committee of over 10 students in planning annual orientation for over 50 undergraduate researchers
Developed and led first Engineering PA Research Symposium in spring 2016
Authored a >20-page orientation handbook to provide insight for new researchers
Developed biweekly newsletter and social media group for undergraduate researchers

Mentor, Women in Engineering

September 2014-Present

Met weekly with a freshman female engineer; currently co-leading a group of six mentees

September 2014-Present

Identified peer reviewers for articles and communicated with authors regarding reviewer comments

September-December 2016

Leadership Team, Bridges International

September 2013-September 2016