BIOL UN3500

I learned about the research projects my peers are conducting.

I learned how to present scientific information in a concise fashion.

Ridiculous. I was there all the time and she didn't even notice or care. Truly, why would you work for someone like this?

Initial proposal, Progress report, Paper, etc. largely for administrative purposes. He has all these rules about when the paper is due and the deadline but gives hopeless feedback so I wonder if it even matters? I didn't even get a remark on my paper.

About my peers' research, how to conduct sound scientific research, presenting my work in a written and oral way

How to ask questions during research presentation Lab skills Research paper writing skills

Mentor for W3500 @ Columbia: I was introduced to Dr. Toran-Allerand's lab via internet and the W3500 site, but surely that was the first of my mistakes. Dr. Dominique Toran-Allerand is by far the worst professor I have ever been in contact with at Columbia University and it is a disgrace that she is allowed to continue let alone be publicized to helpless, unassuming students. I truly wanted to have a research experience but instead I learned a lot about life and a lot about reality in the research field- sometimes its not about the research. its about the PI. I have never met a woman so insensitive and blatantly rude to her students. Her favorite work is "categorically wrong" which she will throw at you while you try and reason with her. We worked on a project with mice and she basically blamed the students for incorrect results thought it was largely the post-doc's fault for choosing the wrong type of mice. It should be mentioned that she is hopelessly rude and inept and grades based on results, not performance. Trust me, it should tell you something that 1) she has no kids 2) she swears and shouts when she is speaking to people 3) she once screamed at her lab for throwing her a birthday party and 4) she only has one person who works for her- a harrowed post-doc who can't leave because he needs to pay for his kids and his wife. Do not chose her as a mentor and stay far far aw…

Professor Pollack is a nightmare. Why did they make him the overseer for this course? I really wish they hadn't done such a thing. He is extremely difficult to talk to and hopelessly rude via email. I have tried to contact him and his replies are stern, one-worded and often completely unhelpful. If you try and talk to him about a situation in lab, he retorts back. I realize that he may be an effective teacher for other classes but in my opinion he is old fashioned and extremely unhelpful. As the Columbia connection for this course, he is only succeeding in making it extremely stressful for students to the point where they don't feel like even talking to him about any problem they may have, just because they expect a cold retort. If he doesn't have the time or the concern to handle this class then I would hope he quit this position now rather than waste students' time and injure their interest in research. If you are planning to take Independent research do yourself a favor and chose a fabulous PI so you never have to go through the nightmare of the Pollack. One more thing- don't mix up his name with that of a fish or he'll probably bite your head off. So all in all, he has succeeded in making this class which is generally one of the most interesting in Columbia, one of the most painful. I do not recommend this class because he is hard to get by and while people who have had a…

I learned techniques for biological research that were relevant to the lab I was working in. We also learned how to write things like proposals, scientific research papers and how to present our research.

I learned about my personal research project and what others were researching