Virtual Lab Tours for Recruitment and Outreach

In the face of campus closures around the world, scientific laboratories are offering tours via video. We asked experts for their tips.

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Mid-morning on Wednesday, March 11, graduate student Mathew Rasmussen was preparing for the recruitment events that weekend, when about 50 prospective graduate students were expected to visit the chemical and biological engineering department at the University of Colorado Boulder. When his committee on graduate student recruitment got the word that the campus was closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic and student visits were canceled, they sprang into action. “We basically had all of Thursday afternoon and evening to shoot and edit the video clips before posting them on YouTube for our virtual recruitment weekend on Friday,” he says.

Despite the rush, Rasmussen says he thinks the resulting videos are a valuable tool for giving potential students a glimpse of each lab’s culture. His lab, led by renewable energy researcher Will Medlin, “is even talking about putting the video on our group website to attract potential graduate ...

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  • Andy Tay

    Andy received his PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2014, focusing on neuromodulation and engineering. He subsequently completed his postdoctoral training at Stanford University, where he developed nanotechnologies for immuno-engineering. Andy is listed as a 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 (North America, Science) and is a freelance writer based in Singapore.

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