#SoCaltech: Grace Liu

“I was working with the Arnold Lab earlier in the school year, but I always felt like the undergrad among grad students. Now, thanks to my SURF, I’ve merged into the lab a lot more. I go to group meetings, and I can have conversations with the grad students, who are always telling me about papers and new packages of code that might be helpful to my research.

“When I’m doing a SURF, because I’m trying to tackle a bigger project, it has surprised me how many things I have to work on at once. While coding, for example, I will run into a problem and must find a way around it. But then finding a way around it requires me to use a new technique, or use a new package, or learn something new altogether. It’s a much more dynamic process. It’s constantly changing.”

Grace Liu, a junior in biology and biological engineering, discusses her Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) experience in the laboratory of Nobel laureate Frances Arnold, Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry and director of the Donna and Benjamin M. Rosen Bioengineering Center. Liu uses machine learning to predict how certain proteins will interact to catalyze chemical reactions.

#SoCaltech is an occasional series celebrating the diverse individuals who give Caltech its spirit of excellence, ambition, and ingenuity. Know someone we should profile? Send nominations to magazine@caltech.edu.