Jennifer Barton

I cherish the intellectual freedom that is a part of my faculty position. When I walk into my laboratory, I know that the research being conducted is happening because I am interested in that work. My students, colleagues, and I can brainstorm ideas and we're free to explore them. Sometimes we're completely wrong, but rarely is any investigation a complete blind alley. Of course, this freedom comes with responsibilities. As a biomedical engineer, I must assure that the work I perform is ethical and relevant to bettering human health. I must also convince a funding organization that it should provide support for my research. I find the grant-seeking process a surprisingly enjoyable method of translating existing ideas into provable hypotheses and technological specifications. Writing forces concepts into focus, quickly eliminates poor ideas, and assures that I maintain a broad perspective. With a successful application comes another cycle of creation and discovery, a process that makes every day exciting.