INBRE Scholars on campus – meet Catherine Sargus

Twenty-six students from 10 different undergraduate and community college programs have joined the Institutional Development Award Program (IDeA) Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE)/ Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (BRIN) program.

Catherine Sargus

Established in 2001, the BRIN program was created to expose students to serious biomedical research, build a statewide biomedical research infrastructure between undergraduate and graduate institutions and to strengthen each undergraduate institution’s infrastructure and increase its capacity to conduct cutting-edge biomedical and behavioral research.

Today we meet Catherine Sargus.

Who is Catherine Sargus?

I graduated high school in North Canton, Ohio, but my family now lives in La Vista, Neb. I am currently a junior biological systems engineering major at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with an emphasis in biomedical engineering.

Has science always been a part of your life?

Yes, science has always intrigued me. In fifth grade, I even built a Rube Goldberg machine and sent in a video of it to the former TV show “Zoom,” on which it aired a few months later. I’ve always been curious about how things work and why things work.

How is it important to you?

It is important to me because discoveries in biomedical science help improve the health and quality of life. That is what I am most passionate about. There is still so much to be discovered in areas such as artificial organs and prosthetics, so it is important for future scientists like me to continue on with further research to improve and save lives.

Why did you choose to participate in the INBRE program?

I am interested in doing biomedical engineering research as a career and this year I realized that it was time for me to start gaining research experience. There are not many opportunities for internships around Nebraska for biomedical engineering so when I saw the ad for the INBRE program, it was the answer I was looking for. I chose to participate in the program in order to obtain first-hand experience in biomedical research before entering graduate school

What do you hope to gain from the program?

I hope to gain knowledge and experience that will prepare me for getting my master’s degree and then later on my Ph.D. I also hope to get a feel for what specific fields interest me the most since I still do not know all of the career options available to a biomedical engineer.