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By Janie Har
Photos by Bruce Ely
& Jim Harrison |
N ot yet 21,
Reed College graduating senior JJ Miranda has already published one solo
research paper in biochemistry and wowed his professors as a future giant
among scientists.
Even more impressive than Mirandas ability to analyze hemoglobins
is his ferocious zest for learning, a trait that he credits Reed for cultivating
in its students.
When I first stepped on this campus, I was barely a biochemistry student.
I was really just a kid who knew how to perform a specialized set of experiments,
he says.
When I leave Reed, however, I can probably call myself a scientist
with a straight face.
President Steven Koblik emphasized how special Reedies are at the colleges
93rd commencement May 14. He asked the 265 bachelors degree candidates
and two masters degree candidates to take their imagination, challenging
questions and work habits out into the world.
Be an activist. Be a thought-ful activist, said Koblik, as audience
members shivered in their seats and rain splashed on the large tent.
Thoughtfulness is something Mirandawho won one of Reeds Class
of 1921 Awards for creativity, initiative and spontaneityhas
in bushels. He rarely stops asking why, how, what if.
JJs transcended any sort of goal Ive seen in a person
at this stage of his career, says Arthur Glasfeld, chemistry professor
and Mirandas thesis adviser. Its a joy to see his unfettered
pleasure in doing scholarly research for the sake of scholarship.
Miranda bats away such praise, saying that most students at Reed share his
inquisitiveness.
He chose a career in science because it would allow him to exercise that
curiosity, but with practical results. He plans to study proteins and nucleic
acids at the atomic level and figure out how cells function in the body.
For his senior thesis Miranda analyzed how hemoglobins ferret away carcinogens.
He dreamed up the questions, devised the methodology and collected material
from around the country.
This is unusualout of all the fantastic things hes achievedhes
set up an independent research idea from scratch, Glasfeld says.
Miranda ended up at Reed College because an adviser told him to go where
he could surround himself with serious learners.
At first, his parents were reluctant to send him to Portland. They wanted
him close to home in the San Francisco Bay Area. And they had never heard
of the school.
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