Ethan Xu SEBS '26

Overall, Rutgers has allowed my interest in microbiology to expand far beyond what I knew going in.

Before studying microbiology at Rutgers, I wasn't even aware of the computational side of microbiology. So, first of all, it really blew my mind getting to learn about all of this in the first place during my freshman year. It was this that really sparked my interest in microbiome research, and it was what lead to me to pursue undergraduate research. I had a chance to develop my understanding of microbiology a lot further here--I got to do actual work involving some of the computational methods I had learned about previously, and got hands-on experience working with the complex statistics that can be involved in this kind of research. Alongside that, I'd gotten enough education on genetics to learn more about genomic techniques being used in the field today. Now, in my senior year, I've found myself having enough understanding on the topic to look forwards to personally trying out new things I've been able to read about in papers.