Recent graduate, Brandon Hespenheide

Brandon enrolled in an innovative, interdisciplinary Ph.D. program through the Departments of Biochemistry and Physics, working under the direction of Dr. Leslie Kuhn in Biochemistry and Dr. Michael Thorpe in Physics. The College of Natural Science encourages students to think and work across disciplinary lines and develop their own specialized Ph.D. as part of the dual major degree program offered to all doctoral students at MSU. Brandon was one of several pioneering students within the College whose work brings together the methodology and concerns of two formerly separate programs.

In 1998, Brandon was a junior at MSU majoring in biochemistry. As part of the Research Experience for Undergraduates summer program at MSU, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Brandon spent 10 weeks working in the lab with Dr. Kuhn, applying computational techniques to study protein folding. This protein folding project became the basis for Brandon's doctoral research, in which he was developing new computational approaches to studying the folding pathways and the flexibility of proteins.

What made Brandon's work particularly progressive is that he used the computer to apply new theoretical models--drawn from algorithms developed for physics--to this research question which has primarily concerned biologists.

Brandon admits that learning the nomenclature and theoretical framework of a new field--in his case, it was physics--can be intimidating at first. He found the guidance he needed in a second doctoral advisor: "It helped me to have Dr. Thorpe as my liaison in Physics," says Brandon.

At MSU, students enrolled in a dual major doctoral program are required to satisfy key requirements of both departments and may choose, like Brandon, to seek out a mentor from each department.

Brandon offers this advice to other students who wish to seek out innovative areas of research: "Check out other departments and find out what research is going on and see how you can apply that to your own work."

Graduate students at MSU can begin to explore the terrain of other departments by asking for guidance from their major professors and department advisors, attending conferences and seminar presentations, or joining organizations within their colege or at the University where they can network with administrators, faculty and other graduate students. (Allison, Cathie, editor; Graduate Post, Fall 2000)

Top