On Traveling, Research Work, Grant Applications, and Duct Tape: 10 Questions for SURF grantee Amanda Ederle
Ederle in the Mechanobiology & Soft Materials Lab.
Amanda Ederle is a student in the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Arkansas. She works under Dr. Kartik Balachandran in the Mechanobiology & Soft Materials Laboratory, and was recently awarded a SURF grant to continue her research work.
UArk BME: When you first arrived at the U. of A. as an Honors College Fellow, did you know what you wanted to study?
Ederle: I am actually a Public Health major, but I am doing biomedical engineering research for my Honors Thesis. I think my situation exhibits one of the great aspects of the Honors College. I can explore my diverse interests and incorporate all of them into my undergraduate education. I was originally drawn to public health because I was interested in exploring the broad perspective of medicine and health. I think that it is important for me to study public health because of the new focus on prevention techniques in the clinical medicine world; as a future physician, my public health background will provide me with the tools to examine health from a holistic perspective, originating as much from social aspects as genetic ones. However, though I love my public health courses, I found that I missed certain aspects of the sciences. I began to look at the research in the hard sciences on the U. of A.’s website, and Dr. Balachandran’s research really stood out to me. I reached out to Dr. B to express my interest, and the rest is history!