Hello there.

My name is Katie and I am a biology enthusiast. I study microbiology at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities. Experiencing science hands-on has been an incredible and invaluable opportunity for learning.

Unfortunately, not everyone has the option to or desire to work in a lab, so much of this direct interaction with science is lost. One of the only bridges to modern research is scientific research papers. These articles are often hidden behind paywalls, inaccessible to a majority of the public. If not financially inaccessible, these articles are educationally inaccessible — ask any student in the sciences and they will tell you papers overflow with highly technical language.

So how can we build bridges to science everyone can use?

At the University of Minnesota, a group named Health and Biological Research News started as a way for undergraduate students to break down and understand those tough articles. A small group of students would meet every week to write summaries of recent research articles. Now, HBR News has expanded to publish these articles online and present them to peers at bi-weekly meetings.

As a co-president of this organization, two of my major goals this year are to expand the diversity of our content and increase our readership. Most importantly, our board’s goal is to help our writers develop confidence and individual voice in their writing.

Stay tuned.

Katie Kelly