Meet Maria Lauren – a fourth year undergraduate from UBC Forestry’s Bioeconomy Sciences and Technology (BEST) program. Maria has been working in Dr. Kwang Ho Kim’s Biorefinery and Biomass Conversion Lab for the past eight months and has recently published a paper as the lead author in a peer-reviewed journal.
Maria’s research focuses on how to develop new and more sustainable ways to turn plants into fermentable sugars and high-quality lignin. By combining biomass with an ecofriendly solvent and breaking it down in a ball mill machine, she was able to develop a biorefinery method that’s faster, more efficient and doesn’t rely on fossil fuels for the solvent.
In celebration of her work titled Novel Biorefinery Approach through a Biocompatible Deep Eutectic Solvent-Mediated One-Pot Mechanochemical Conversion, Maria Lauren spoke to us about the significance of her accomplishment.
How did your experience in Dr. Kwang-Ho Kim’s lab help shape your research?
While I’d had previous lab experience across different faculties, working in Dr. Kim’s lab was the first time I’d been fully immersed as a full-time researcher and it was a completely different experience. At fist things felt familiar, like any new lab role: I read up on my new topic, learned the necessary techniques and settled into the routine of my new research role.
But, unlike working in a lab between classes, spending several months entirely focused on developing my biorefinery process allowed me to fully engage with the research and follow it in unexpected directions. When things didn’t work out, I had the time to trial-and-error experiments until I found the results I’d been hoping for or meet with Dr. Kim to design new approaches. That level of involvement really shaped my research and helped me grow as a scientist.
What does it mean to have your work published in a peer-reviewed journal as an undergraduate?
It feels really inspiring. I’ve always been passionate about science, and being able to contribute to the field is a great feeling. Often as a student you spend a lot of time working on projects or papers that never go past the grader’s desk, so knowing that what I was writing could actually make an impact made this whole experience that much more impactful. It felt like it made everything I did in the lab matter that much more. Getting published also means I was able to conduct research at the same level as graduate students and will be presenting my work at the same conferences, so I’m really glad that I got this opportunity.
What challenges or insights did you gain during the academic publishing process?
It was really interesting to navigate, especially being lead author of my first big research paper. Usually, undergrads partner with grad students when writing. But, since it was a new lab, no grad students had joined at the time and I got the chance to take the lead on the manuscript.
While that was exciting and I’m so grateful for the opportunity, it was also pretty intimidating at times. I knew everything I had to write because I’d spent months in the lab on it, but I really wanted to make sure I was communicating it in the right way. In practice that meant writing a lot of drafts and having a lot of meetings with Dr. Kim to ensure my figures and manuscript were communicating what I wanted them to.
When it came to finally sending the manuscript off for peer review, I was definitely nervous for the feedback. But after all that work, it was really rewarding to get through with just one round of revisions before it was accepted. Overall, while it was definitely a learning process, I really enjoyed it. It felt like writing an essay on something I truly cared about, with the added bonus of knowing that other researchers would actually read and engage with it.
Dr. Kwang-Ho has described you as ‘a young scientist with such promise’, how does it feel to be recognized this way by your mentor?
I’m very grateful. Beyond the typical onboard and training that happens at any new job, Dr. Kim’s been very supportive and helped me a lot in making the jump from student to researcher. While the roles are similar, there were many tasks and responsibilities to navigate that were totally new to me.
Going from being in school to being surrounded by people who have years of experience over me was a big jump, especially when I was supposed to be showing my work and explaining things to them. Whether it was preparing for presentations or attending industry conferences for the first time, it meant a lot to know that I always had someone in my corner. He’s been a great mentor and thanks to my time in his lab, I’m excited to pursue more research in the same field. I’m currently working to expand the process I wrote my paper on, so I’m really glad that he sees such potential in me.
Dr. Kwang Ho Kim expresses his pride in Maria’s achievement
“Maria joined my lab as a co-op student in January and quickly grew into an independent researcher. She not only designed and led her own project, but also brought it to publication in a peer-reviewed journal—an exceptional achievement for an undergraduate. It has been truly inspiring to witness her dedication and growth, and I am proud to see her establish herself as a young scientist with such promise.”