Undergraduate Scholars Contribute to Bioethics Research

What inspired you to participate in the Laidlaw Scholars Leadership and Research Programme?

I was particularly interested in the Laidlaw Fellowship because it allows students with very diverse interests to come together and innovate independent projects, while collaborating with each other and with a team of experts in the field of research. I chose to apply to the Future of Bioethics project, directed by Dr. Sandra Lee, because it provided me with the opportunity to dig deeper into how policy can severely impact medical practices and clinical research, directly putting patients at risk. The multifaceted aspect of this program allowed me to network with former government leaders, bioethics experts, and current medical school students, which helped me gain a lot of knowledge on my future profession as a physician and further fostered an interest for research, which I hope to grow throughout the rest of my undergraduate career at Columbia.

What research project or area of study did you work on within the Division of Ethics? What questions or topics were you focused on?

Specifically, I focused on the impact of grant and award terminations on the National Science Foundation's ethical, legal, and social portfolio, surrounding January 2025. I performed a longitudinal analysis on historically funded and administratively terminated grants of five NSF programs and coded each grant according to their relation to bioethical inquiry. I also looked into how primary investigators and institutions were responding to these terminations throughout media, official university-wide publications, and other independent sources. By analyzing this data, I looked to gain insight into the research question "Which NSF-supported research domains are most affected by 2025 changes, and which fields of inquiry are at risk?" My data supported the conclusion that various bioethics research programs were being indirectly impacted by these terminations; overall, there has been a transformation in the balance between independent ethical inquiry and technology-centered innovation. Programs historically devoted to ethics, social analysis, and governance appear more vulnerable to disruption, while large-scale investments in artificial intelligence and technological development remain robust.

What was the most meaningful aspect of your experience?

The most meaningful aspect of my research experience was being able to independently develop a research project and acquire data-backed results that could help the Future of Bioethics project form a more full understanding of national bioethical implications of grant terminations. Since the National Science Foundation has received minimal media exposure and has not been under as much scrutiny as the NIH, my research progressed our understanding of the organization's evolution throughout the course of the last year and a half. Being able to see the progression of the investigations led by other members of my Laidlaw Cohort was also extremely rewarding, inspiring me to continue to seek more knowledge each week.

How has this experience influenced your goals?

Prior to the Laidlaw Fellowship, I was not very confident about pursuing an independent research project and could not have imagined myself spending more than a few weeks on a particular investigation, but after learning more about the importance of looking into undiscovered domains and by meeting with graduate advisors and librarians at Columbia, I became certain that I would continue to pursue research throughout the course of my undergraduate career. This experience also opened my eyes to a potential MD/PhD degree and gave me enough confidence to become involved in other projects taking place across campus.

What inspired you to participate in the Laidlaw Scholars Leadership and Research Programme?

I was inspired to join the Laidlaw Fellowship because of its emphasis on research with real-world impact and its commitment to engaging students in questions that extend beyond the classroom. I was also drawn to the interdisciplinary nature of the program. Being part of a cohort of students working across completely different fields created a unique environment where we could learn from one another’s perspectives and approaches, even when our projects were unrelated on the surface. Equally important, the fellowship felt beginner-friendly and accessible; as someone who had not previously done formal research, I appreciated that it provided structured mentorship and support while still encouraging independence and intellectual curiosity.

What research project or area of study did you work on within the Division of Ethics? What questions or topics were you focused on?

I worked on Dr. Lee’s Pathways to Negotiating Genomics Research Partnerships project. The project explores how genomics research partnerships are formed among different stakeholders (including researchers, universities, funders, and other institutions) in global contexts, with a particular focus on how these relationships can be made more equitable. One of the project's key deliverables is a playbook designed to help stakeholders reflect on and strengthen their own research partnerships by providing practical guidance on key issues. My work focused on supporting the development of this playbook by researching existing playbooks and guidance documents to identify effective strategies and best practices that could be adapted to the context of genomics research partnerships.

What was the most meaningful aspect of your experience?

The most meaningful part of my experience was being able to work with such an interdisciplinary and inter-institutional team. Research can sometimes feel fragmented, with people working within their own fields or institutions, but this project was incredibly collaborative. I had the chance to learn from people with different backgrounds, expertise, and perspectives, and seeing how everyone approached the same questions from different angles made the work much richer. It showed me how valuable collaboration is when tackling research.

How has this experience influenced your goals?

As someone who hopes to become a physician, this experience broadened my understanding of healthcare beyond the patient-provider relationship. While medicine is often centered on individual patient care, this project exposed me to the complex network of relationships that make scientific and medical advances possible. It has encouraged me to think more deeply about the systems and partnerships that shape healthcare and research, and it reinforced my interest in pursuing a career that combines clinical practice with broader questions of ethics, equity, and global health.

What inspired you to participate in the Laidlaw Scholars Leadership and Research Programme?

Not only did applying to the Laidlaw Fellowship mean having privileged access to world-class professors and having the shot to work alongside them and learn from their research process, but it also opened the door to the opportunity of becoming a part of a community of like minded individuals, leaders and researchers. The Laidlaw foundation looks for very driven, enthusiastic and optimistic individuals who will be the leaders of tomorrow. During my time at Columbia, I have found that although I can learn a lot from my professors, my peers are often those who offer the most unique insight and truly help me change my perspective. I was thrilled to be a part of the Laidlaw cohort this summer and cannot wait to keep learning and growing alongside them!

What research project or area of study did you work on within the Division of Ethics? What questions or topics were you focused on?

My project was a part of Dr. Sandra Lee’s The Future of Bioethics, a multi-university effort which asks how the Trump administration is affecting the bioethics ecosystem in the United States and how to better engage with professors, stakeholders, trainees and scientists in order to preserve the field and mitigate the fallout of new policy changes. I worked on International Comparators of Funding, a project guided by the question of how bioethics is conducted outside the United States and what we can learn from foreign countries to make the domestic bioethics ecosystem more resilient to political change. To work toward this goal, I developed a methodology to assess each country’s bioethics publication output in Scopus, a large bibliographic database maintained by Elsevier. For funders in China, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States, I analyzed the funder type and country of origin in order to generate comparative snapshots of how bioethics research is produced and supported across national contexts.

What was the most meaningful aspect of your experience?

It was incredibly inspiring to watch Dr. Lee work alongside Principal Investigators in different academic institutions and see their conversations unfold. It taught me that leadership is a collaborative effort and that carrying out good research isn’t about whose voice is the loudest but about finding a team of people with whom you can lead productive discussions to reach better conclusions.

How has this experience influenced your goals?

This experience has shown me that my interest in medicine and healthcare can take me in many paths and that there is a lot of good that can be accomplished in asking ourselves how medicine can become more humane, how healthcare can become more equitable and how ethics can become the principles which tie us all together.