Magazine

The importance of hands-on research opportunities for future career paths is backed by data: 95 percent of employers say it’s important that graduates be able to apply their knowledge to career settings, and 73 percent of employers say they’re more likely to hire a candidate who has had a mentored research experience.

This is why a key part of St. Olaf College’s new strategic plan is focused on expanding faculty-mentored and course-based research. An important step in helping the college meet that goal came with the recent news that St. Olaf received a three-year, $156,000 grant to establish the Beckman Scholars Program on campus. The program pairs St. Olaf students with some of the college’s top research-active science faculty members, and provides them with funding to conduct a 15-month research project.

The first two Beckman Scholars are Roan Wood ’28, who will be mentored by Professor of Chemistry Doug Beussman ’92, and Adrian Kakehashi ’28, who will be mentored by Associate Professor of Biology and Director of Neuroscience Norman Lee.

---

In a Regents Hall of Natural Sciences laboratory, where precision and patience shape discovery, Roan Wood ‘28 is preparing to do something unexpected: make a mistake. 

Over the coming months, the chemistry major will run and rerun experiments, intentionally pushing them off course to understand where they break down — and how future students might learn from those missteps. 

“I have to go through and try to mess up the experiment in ways that I think students would likely do in the lab, so that the professors who may be teaching that lab in the future know what to look for in case mistakes are made, so they know how to correct it,” Wood says.

Wood is part of St. Olaf College’s inaugural cohort of Beckman Scholars, a program supported by a three-year, $156,000 grant from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. Each year, two students are selected to conduct sustained research across two summers and an intervening academic year — an extended timeline that sets the program apart from traditional undergraduate research experiences. 

That structure, faculty say, is what makes the opportunity transformative. 

“ Research takes time,” says Associate Professor of Biology and Director of Neuroscience Norman Lee. “Students need time to learn the techniques, collect data, analyze it, and communicate their results. That full process is really only possible over an extended period. They will get to see in reality what a scientist does, from start to finish.”

The Beckman program also reflects a broader institutional priority. St. Olaf’s strategic plan, Solution Seekers, emphasizes expanding access to high-impact experiences like undergraduate research and equipping students with the skills to explore meaningful vocations. 

For Wood, that journey begins with her first research experience — and a growing sense of confidence. 

“Sometimes, I have the tendency to underestimate myself,” she says. “So being one of two students chosen as a Beckman Scholar was really meaningful, definitely boosted my confidence in my own abilities, and affirmed that there is a place for me in this academic arena.”

Working alongside Professor of Chemistry Douglas Beussman ‘92, Wood will help develop new laboratory protocols for St. Olaf’s isotope ratio mass spectrometer. Over time, she’ll move from learning the fundamentals to shaping the project itself — a transition Beussman sees as central to the program’s design. 

“In the beginning, students are following a process,” he says. “But over time, they really understand their project, really take more ownership — they go from following a recipe to thinking like a researcher.”

That sense of ownership is already familiar to fellow Beckman Scholar Adrian Kakehashi ‘28, a biology major studying neuroethology — the neural basis of animal behavior — in the Lee Lab of Neural Systems and Behavior. His research focuses on a parasitic fly that locates crickets by sound, raising broader questions about how organisms process complex signals. 

“ Research takes time. Students need time to learn the techniques, collect data, analyze it, and communicate their results. That full process is really only possible over an extended period. They will get to see in reality what a scientist does, from start to finish.” — Associate Professor of Biology and Director of Neuroscience Norman Lee

“I’m  fascinated by learning how things work,” Kakehashi says. “In this case, why do animals act the way they do? There’s millions of animals, and yet even similar animals can have wildly different features, different ways of living. I really appreciate that I have the opportunity to conduct a sort of investigation of this one specific species and its very specific adaptations.”

Through the Beckman Scholars Program, Kakehashi will build on research he began earlier this year, diving deeper into how the fly’s auditory system responds to different patterns of sound. 

“It feels like I am making almost more of a professional decision,” he says, describing his commitment to a multi-year project. “Up to now, I’ve had a lot of advisors helping guide me through the different decisions I’ve had to make, but I feel like this decision especially was kind of one I made independently, and while I will be working directly with [Lee], a lot of the work will be conducted on my own — it’s a little intimidating, but also very rewarding.”

For both students, the opportunity extends beyond the lab. Beckman Scholars receive funding for travel and professional development, including the chance to attend and present research at national conferences, experiences that connect their work to the broader scientific community. 

While the program supports a limited number of students each year, its impact runs deep. 

“It’s not about volume, but depth — quality over quantity,” Beussman says. “This format will allow students to move beyond the initial training and into independent thinking, resilience, and problem-solving — skills that define scientific work.”

“In the beginning, students are following a process. But over time, they really understand their project, really take more ownership — they go from following a recipe to thinking like a researcher.”

— Professor of Chemistry Doug Beussman ’92

By the end of the program, faculty hope students will not only contribute to ongoing research, but begin to see themselves as researchers in their own right. For the sophomores, that transformation is already taking shape as they embark on a journey of discovery: of learning how breakthroughs actually happen, and, perhaps, finding where it might lead next.