Josh Kaplan, PhD candidate

“9 is arrogant”, he calmly tells me as if we’re on the same page. “Why do you think that?” I ask, trying to wrap my head around this alien concept. “Obviously it has the right to be, but I don’t know the exact reason.” “No, there’s nothing obvious about it, but what are some other examples?” I intriguingly prod this sophomore who has stayed around after class to discuss with me the recent discovery of … Read More

We’re all familiar with success. A resume composed entirely of failures doesn’t get you into a graduate degree program. We’ve been on honor rolls, dean’s lists, members of academic honor societies, and won our fair share of awards. Let’s face it, that’s the only way you get accepted to a place like OHSU; if your parents’ refrigerator had arms, it would reach out and pat you on the back. But is that still the case? … Read More

I know it is a publish or perish world. Despite my liberal arts background, where professors are not required to obtain grants to survive, I’ve recognized the importance of publishing, both for one’s own career growth, but also as the responsibility of the researcher to disseminate one’s findings. However, I had always believed that effort and experimental “luck” were the limiting factors. If you worked hard and there weren’t any experimental catastrophes (e.g. virus in … Read More

For my inaugural post, I’ll start with something fresh on my mind: a recent alcohol research conference down in San Francisco. But first, I suppose it’s appropriate to start with a bit of personal background. I began my Oregon Trail quest, not from Independence, Missouri, but from Deerfield, Illinois (northern suburb of Chicago) nearly eight years ago. After a layover at Colorado College to get my BA, I finally made it out to Oregon in … Read More