Day in the Life: Shalini Namuduri
9:00 am
It’s Monday morning, and I’m ready to ease into the day after a restful weekend. I have no midterms or major club events coming up, so this week is going to be pretty relaxed. I exercise, read a little bit, and drink some chai. Then, I get ready and go to lab.
10:30 am
Doing (and even finding) research at Berkeley can be super intimidating, but it is such a cool experience! I do research at the Innovative Genomics Institute, and I study a strain of methylotrophic yeast called Ogataea Parapolymorpha. Today’s to-do list includes doing a couple transformations, running a PCR, running a Golden Gate, analyzing some colonies, prepping a plasmid, and doing a test digest. It’s going to be a busy day here at lab, but the view is great, and the people are even greater.
12:30 pm
I eat a salad for lunch and go to work at the Hargrove Music Library, which is the prettiest library on campus, all bias aside. My shift is from 1:00 to 3:00 today. I spend most of that time reading and end up finishing my book (The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins).
3:00 pm
I head back to lab and watch my BioE 103 (Engineering Molecules 2) lecture until 4pm. Today, we are learning about fuel cells, the Third Law of Thermodynamics, and chemical potential. Even though I’m not great at physics, I really enjoy this class!
4:00 pm
After I’m done watching my lecture, I finish up some lab work from earlier.
5:30 pm
I eat a quick dinner and go grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s! My favorite snacks right now are the truffle potato chips and pumpkin spice cookies.
6:30 pm
My last class of the day is the BioInspired Design DeCal at Jacobs Hall. Today, we have a guest lecturer — Professor Robert Full. He is so passionate about his work, and his lab does very interesting biomechanics research. I’m excited for this DeCal because we also get to use the equipment in Jacobs Hall
8:00 pm
After my class, I head back to my apartment and prepare for my SWE Outreach meeting.
10:00 pm
I invite some of my friends over and we do homework together until we get tired.
12:00 am
It’s finally time to sleep! Today was pretty hectic, but I need to be well-rested for tomorrow!
