Print This Post
Lara Onbasi
Name:
Lara Onbasi
Job title:
Undergraduate Medical Student and contributor to the AMiNDR Podcast
Place of work / study:
Hacettepe University, Turkey
Area of Research:
I am still a medical student, so I haven’t had much time yet to explore many areas of research but right now, I am finding myself drawn to neurodegenerative diseases as a general topic, as well as neuroimaging methods and the analysis of emotions using different neuroscientific parameters. Last year, I got the chance to work with my advisor on EEG signals, brain connectivity, and how they can relate to emotions; and my interest in the field has only grown since then. I am incredibly grateful that I was able to get some research experience and hope that I can continue to be actively involved in research going forward.
Tell us a little about yourself:
I am a medical student currently living in Turkey, and I am trying to improve myself on different dimensions as I am going through medical school. I am very interested in neurology and orthopaedics and hope to work as a doctor in one of those specialties in the future, although many other fields in medicine are also fascinating to me. In addition to my scientific interests, I love to paint with watercolours or digitally, learn new languages, and try new sports in my free time. I also do my best to be involved in various projects that relate to my interests, while also allowing me to meet new people and discover more about science! Working in teams like AMiNDR make me very happy and even more passionate about my aspirations to become a physician and researcher.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself:
Don’t know if this really counts, but for a lot of my childhood I wanted to be an animated movie creator when I grew up J In fact, I wrote stories in a small notebook, which I still keep. I still adore animations to this day and admire the artists behind them!
What single piece of advice would you give to an early career researcher?
I would consider myself to be very new to scientific research, but one piece of advice that was given to me by one of my professors, was to just go for it. I know it sounds extremely simplistic, but it did really have a positive impact on me, especially as someone who is still very new to the world of networking. Trying to adopt that mentality inspired me to stop always overthinking every possible bad outcome and instead to try to pursue my interests further, reach out, connect with other students and researchers whose work I found interesting, and apply to different opportunities.
What book are you reading right now? Would you recommend it?
Currently I am reading ‘Das Parfum’ (Perfume: The Story of a Murderer). It is a historical fantasy novel by the German author Patrick Süskind. I decided to read it after watching the series related to the novel. It is quite interesting and different from many of the other mystery novels that I have read. Although I have just begun reading it a few days ago, I would recommend it so far!
