“I am Katherine Berensen. I’m currently a fourth-year undergraduate student double-majoring in biology and philosophy of science.
My whole life I was a STEM girl. I believed in right answers and black-and-white thinking. Being in the philosophy of science program really changed my mind about categorical thinking. The deeper you get into biology, the more you realize it’s not so simple.
My experience doing undergraduate research has been truly nothing short of transformative. I
never thought that was something that I was going to be able to achieve. Research in academia
felt like there were a lot of walls and barriers and things they don’t tell you — things you’re
supposed to learn at some point that aren’t clear. Being able to be in my lab and work in such a
collaborative and warm and encouraging environment has changed the way that I think about
the world, the way that I think about myself and the way that I view the future.
I am currently in a philosophy of biology lab here at the U run by Professor Matt Haber. Being able to work around people who are so knowledgeable and so supportive and who want you to understand has been an incredible opportunity. Watching the process of how research gets conducted, especially in the humanities, has been incredible for me. It’s broken down the wall of what it means to be a researcher and what it looks like for a professor to embark on a project. It’s demystified it in the best possible way, so all of it feels so much more achievable to me. My confidence and my competency have increased exponentially since being in undergraduate research.
I’ve always loved being in school and always known I wanted to go to graduate school, but undergraduate research has taught me what it would mean to have a career in academia. It’s solidified my desire to continue in academia for the rest of my life in whatever shape or form that could be. I hope I’ll get my Ph.D. and would love to be a researcher and a professor and have a lab of my own. That goal used to seem so far-fetched and it’s been really rewarding to see the incremental progress I’m making toward my own goals.”
— Katherine Berensen, 2026 Research on Capitol Hill presenter
