Students from the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences will walk across the stage on Saturday, Dec. 15 as they graduate from West Virginia University, ready to take on the world.
As Commencement is upon us, several of our Eberly College graduates reflect on their time at WVU and their plans for the future.
Kristyn Lizbinski, a Drums, Pennsylvania, native and doctoral student studying biology at West Virginia University, spent her WVU career studying the olfactory system of insects in Assistant Professor of Neuroscience Andrew Dacks’ lab. Lizbinski’s research on the way neurons communicate was published in eNeuro this fall, and she was awarded the first prize in DRVision and Interstellate’s 2017 Neuroscience Travel Award for a 3D microscopy image of her research.
“Being at WVU has been a transformative experience in terms of how I think about not only science, but just scientific problems in general,” Lizbinski said. “One of my most memorable experiences was getting my first paper accepted. A milestone in graduate school is publishing your work. It’s a great feeling to know that the hard work that you’ve been putting in is actually amounting to something.”
Lizbinski will graduate from WVU in December 2018 with a Ph.D. in biology before beginning postdoctoral research at Yale University School of Medicine’s Department of Neuroscience.
“I think I’ll miss the people at WVU,” Lizbinski said. “For me, it’s always been about the connections you form and the community you form with the people around you and I’ve been extremely lucky to develop such a great support system in not only my peers, but my advisers as well. The supportive environment of the Department of Biology has been wonderful, and I’ll miss it.”
