Credit: Rogier van Bakel / Eager Eye Photography
BAR HARBOR — When University of Maine marine science student Isaiah Mansour signed up for a course at the MDI Biological Laboratory last spring, he knew the material would be a bit outside his comfort zone.
“The course was about the molecular pathways of human disease – every single one of those words is outside of my wheelhouse,” he said. “I decided to sign up anyway because I wanted the exposure to deep biochemistry and a different side of science.”
Credit: Liz Graves · Mount Desert Island Biological LaboratoryMansour was a bit surprised to see more connections than he expected – both to his marine science work and to ideas about the business he hopes to start. He returned to the lab for a summer fellowship in Aric Rogers’ research lab. Mansour and another undergraduate summer fellow were on campus for the groundbreaking of the institution’s new Center for Science Entrepreneurship (CSE), and they started talking with Education Director Jane Disney about the other fields they’ll need to learn about as they launch their careers.
“I have been interested in how science gets communicated to different audiences,” College of the Atlantic student Kaitlyn Clark ’19 said, “and even communication within different fields of science, there ends up being this very siloed effect. The course seemed like a great opportunity to explore things I was already thinking about and a chance to meet a bunch of other Maine science students.”