Cornell: Lab Visit Diary
One month at the Ithaca Ivy League
When I met Dr. Reyna at a conference in 2024, I knew this was a woman you could learn a thing or two from. In September 2026, I get to spend one month at her lab at Cornell. This will be my little professional diary about my experience here!
Sep 8th: Starting week 2 with a holiday
Yesterday was Labor Day, a national holiday in the US. I used this long weekend to explore Ithaca - I clocked upwards of 40,000 steps overall, yay! The Farmer’s Market is beautiful and Cayuga Lake has impressive waves hitting the shores.
In today’s meeting, we had another lively discussion about everyone’s projects. It’s really refreshing to witness lab meetings in a different country and larger lab - conversations really go all over the place but the meeting has been incredibly productive. I’m excited to see my new app and research project develop and learn heaps of new skills on the way!
Sep 3rd: Getting Settled
It has been less than a week and I’m starting to feel like I’m settling in to life at Cornell. The introduction to the grad class on Monday went really well and I got so many insightful questions to my work and projects.
The next day, we got to talk even more in depth about the project I’ll mainly be focusing on this month. It involves a lot of new skills for me, including app development (outside of Shiny), formulating gist vs. verbatim statements and of course, navigating a new lab and campus. Luckily, I got a lot of great input, ideas and feedback in the meeting and - thanks to AI - already have a first rough draft of what the app might turn into.
This morning I went for my first run here and really underestimated the effect of the steep hills. After that, I decided to walk to campus. Was it a smart move at around 85%+ humidity? Probably not, but it’s true what they say: Ithaca is Gorges!
Aug 31st: Arrival
Luckily, my skill to dribble jet lag when flying to the US is strong and I was able to sleep through my first night after arriving in Ithaca on Sunday. I was greeted by different members of the Human Ecology Lab at Cornell and everyone was just lovely. Allison gave me a tour through the Martha Van Rensselaer building, impressing me with how knowledgeable she is about this university.
This afternoon I will introduce myself and my work to the lab and also a class of students, which I’m very excited about. Hopefully, the tiredness-crash will happen later in the evening!