Each year, Frank R. Seaver College of Science and Engineering asks our students engaged in summer research to tell us about themselves, their work and the goals of the research they are working with professors on. This year, the questionnaire was completed by intrepid scientists, mathematicians, engineers and tech experts on campus at Loyola Marymount University — and beyond the bluff!
Francesca Batiz ’27, a biology student whose research was overseen by professor Kate Eisen, studied the effects of drought conditions on native California plants, which have emerged quickly thanks to climate change.
Can you describe your research for those outside your field of study?
This project seeks to determine if populations of the California native, Clarkia xantiana ssp. xantiana has undergone recent, rapid evolution in functional traits in response to droughts in the foothills of the Southern Sierra Nevada.
What do you think readers will find most interesting about your project?
We tend to think that evolution occurs extremely slowly, and we will never be able to see it in our lifetimes, but under specific circumstances, it can happen rapidly. This project presents an opportunity to witness rapid rates of evolution as climate change becomes a more prevalent issue.
What have you learned about doing research that other students might benefit from?
Some of the lessons that I have learned are how to be very patient and problem-solving oriented when approaching this experiment in the lab. Because I am working with plants, I am working on their time and with their behavior; therefore, waiting to complete procedures can take a while and often requires thinking outside of the box. In the meantime, I have been able to focus on learning how to use new applications in order to measure herbarium specimens that are digitized. When the plants did grow, I learned how to cross-pollinate for specific crosses within a population, which felt very cool and Mendel-esque!
In your experience, how does doing research complement coursework?
Research complements doing coursework because I can find a relationship between my project and every STEM class that I have taken at LMU. I often go back to old content and relate my work to new content, so prior concepts that I have learned rarely slip my mind. I love to know that everything that I have learned in Seaver applies to something outside of the classroom, and I can still think about it in nature, even when I’m not doing research.
What advice would you give to someone on the fence about doing research?
My advice that I would give to someone who is on the fence about doing research is to go for it and have an open mindset! It never hurts to try. Going into it, I had no expectations. I chose to approach the professor on my first day of class in BIO-102 after resonating with her research. I just wanted to see what it was like and get deeper into the lab experience. From there, I formed amazing connections, and I even made new best friends! It is truly one of the best things that has happened to me at LMU.