No, OMRF is not a university. But with more than 30 graduate students from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and other state institutions working in our labs, it can sometimes feel like one. OMRF senior scientists train the students, each of whom is working toward a Ph.D. The process typically takes four or five years. Along the way, students learn the ins and outs of biomedical research, and the scientists get the help of energetic workers with fresh, new ideas.
- I knew I wanted to be a scientist when I was inspired by a really good biology teacher.
Flora Ling
Hometown: Tulsa -
You think about your experiments, papers you need to be reading or things you should be writing all the time. There are times I even dream about them.
Joe Wilkerson
Shattuck -
How do I juggle my school and work schedules? Simple—by eliminating sleep and a social life.
Eric Dumas
Watonga -
If I couldn’t be a scientist, I’d be a race car driver.
Reema Biswas Davis
Pune, India -
I want to find a cure for alpha-antitrypsin deficiency. My sister and I both carry a severe form of this disease, and she is on the liver and lung transplant list.
Julie Ward
Oklahoma City -
The hardest part of my work is when experiments fail. I just spent a year optimizing and running experiments for a project that ended up proving my hypothesis was wrong.
Lori Garman
Enid -
Once I made a potato launcher fueled with propane and oxygen. On about the 50th launch, the whole thing exploded. My parents thought I was probably dead.
Lee Bockus
Oklahoma City
