“I have a lot more confidence to pursue experiments, as well as some ideas of the techniques available and the kinds of questions which can be answered. I have also experienced the 'excitement' of seeing a reconstituted process under the microscope for the first time. Both of these mean I am more likely to undertake interdisciplinary projects in the future.”

“I took the course because I want to switch from physics to biology. The course helped me to convince myself that this is possible (and has been done before me): I can learn biology, discuss issues with other biologists, use my previous knowledge when it comes to analysis and programming.”

“I had such a blast in the lab, just as much as drinking at the Kidd, swimming at night or biking around the cape. This course really motivated me to be excited about new approaches I can take with my own research and that nothing is impossible. It was an unforgettable experience, to hang out with such amazing faculty and discuss their science and to meet such amazing students form all over the world.”

“I am quite sure that this course will have a significant impact on my career. Firstly, I think that the scientific components of the course (lectures, projects) have definitely influenced me in the way I will approach future projects in my career and what my view of "important" and interesting science is. Secondly, I think I made friends during the course that will most surely last for the years to come and with whom I except to have scientific interactions.”

“Prior to leaving this year's Physiology course I had been told how great that would be. I believed it, not really know what that implicated. Not to disappoint, it was great. However, the word great fails to capture what it meant to wake up in the morning, granted after a large dose of coffee, to go to lecture and listen from the leading figures of whatever field we were discussing that day. Great falls short of illustrating going to lab to work side by side on a project with people halfway around the globe, geographically and academically if you were to map out the sciences... to play with new ideas. Great simply doesn't captures the sense of community that was forged for seven weeks... that will last a lifetime. But if asked to sum up my experience with the course... all I can say is: Great!”

“This course will have taught me very much in a very little period of time. At the end of the course I feel much more self confident in my ability to learn new skills. I fell much more curious as well, and much more eager to learn about others projects. I think also that I met people I would like to go on working with, and great friends for the rest of my life.”

“The course has instilled this notion that however complicated a problem might be, it is not impossible. It can be done, it takes resilience, it takes creativity, and more importantly cooperativity. This summer has welcomed me into a new community, in which I could freely interact and draw support for problems greater than myself...”

“I would like to thank you again for allowing me to participate in this wonderful course. I learned so much from the projects and from the people I met, that I can't imagine moving to biology without this course. It was inspiring to be reminded that hard work can be a lot of fun and that meaningful work can be done in a short time period. I hope I will be able to keep up this attitude wherever I go.”

“Ron and Tim were fantastic course directors. I have to confess, I was hesitant to come to this course in the first place, mostly because I didn't want to leave my home and my husband for seven weeks. But the course far exceeded my expectations. During the middle few weeks of the course, I found myself calling home every evening (at around 1 or 2 AM) and raving about how fantastic Woods Hole was and all the cool things I had done and interesting conversations I had had that day.”

“This course really influenced my thinking a lot. It is not only useful in learning various techniques. Rather it gives an overview on how one should approach scientific problems, no matter what it is. This is the long-term lesson from the physiology course.”

“I would like to thank the organizers - faculty and TA's for the opportunity to take part in the course. All of you have careers and lives outside the course but have taken the time and effort to guide us successfully through the course and for this I am very much grateful. I wish this course another hundred and more years of success and hope to be part of it as it evolves!”

“The most useful thing was to see how people tied together computational and experimental work. This has already given me some ideas about where I want to go in the near-term with my work. I was already strongly inclined to interdisciplinary work, but this course made me really want to get to know more people outside my lab and my program at my home university. I think that having a network of friends and acquaintances with different backgrounds who I can discuss projects with is essential.”

“I'm looking forward to working with other people now and thinking about projects I never would have even heard about outside of this course. It also encourages me to learn more about what I don't know as opposed to more about what I already know.”

“I have always felt that problems in the life sciences can ultimately make more sense if they are studied using a symphony of approaches. By participating in the course, I witnessed that first hand. Now knowing that it is possible to do so, moreover, having met with people that can collaborate with certainly opens the door for interdisciplinary projects.”

“From now on I will certainly incorporate more quantitative and computational methods in my data analysis. I will also pay more attention to the chemical and physical basis of the biological processes that I study. I will use computational models to guide my future thinking and work.”

“I am into this project already set to pursue interdisciplinary research. Taking this course broadened my knowledge base of techniques and research areas where such research can be effectively pursued.”

“Before I came here I had thought that the course might convert me into a biologist, since I had a physics background and was feeling that I did mostly biology in lab. However, taking the course actually taught me some language to communicate with biologists. I came to know that there are so many ways to combine physics and biology especially after going through all the projects. I had so much interaction with faculties and students. After the course, I feel that I can deal with more difficult things in the future.”

“This course made me realize how willing many people are to share their expertise and how useful collaborations can be. I will definitely pursue many computational methods in my own biological experiments. I learned not to be intimidated by many techniques and computation just because I don't have prior experience. Overall, I learned how important it is to be able to communicate across disciplines and how critical it is to excellent science.”

“I think this aim was met very well. The students mixed well. I was impressed that many biology students tried and succeeded with modeling. As a mathematical/computational person I learnt a lot from the other students with regards to doing experiments.”

“I thought it was a truly interdisciplinary experience. It may be interesting to have in the future the physicists explain to the biologists what are the problems they are trying to solve and what approaches they are taking. There are definitely some cultural differences in the way biologists and physicists practice science and we were not exposed to that at a higher level. If one of the visiting scholars were a pure physicist we could maybe also learn interesting things.”

“All aspects the experience was truly interdisciplinary. There was an extraordinary cross hybridization of ideas, experiments, and computational exercises combining the spectrum of disciplines from physics, chemistry, and biology. This interdisciplinary experience was greatly enhanced by the diverse background of the students, faculty, and the directions and examples provided by Ron and Tim.”

“Here in physiology class I didn't feel like either a physicist in a group of biologists or a biologist in a group of physicists. In the course we were one group sharing our knowledge both in physics and biology. I learned things and I also felt good that I could help biologists understanding physics.”

“The lectures were fantastic. I liked that they were held early in the morning. This forced us to get up and going. Also, I was amazed by the awesome people they got to come speak with us. These people really are the superstars in their fields. It's amazing.”

“I have never experienced that caliber of lectures on a daily basis. It was great to have met the speakers and hear about their work first hand. There was a vast wealth of information. I learned from the first lecture to the last lecture.”

“The laboratory makes this course. It is absolutely fantastic. You get an opportunity to work with excellent faculty one-on-one. (Typically you would not do this even if you had rotated through their lab.)”

“I thought the techniques and microscopy were very cutting edge and the questions we addressed were exciting and important to the scientific community. It is great seeing a lot of people's work from the course being submitted to ASCB as posters and most likely a few papers as well.”

“I believe this course has given me a much broader background in biology, and - with regards to the previous question - means I will undertake more interdisciplinary projects. Thus, the course will make a difference in the science I do in my career, and I believe means that I will do more 'higher impact' science than otherwise.”

“(1) It will make me better at communicating my work and placing it in a broader context. (2) It will help me put other people's work into context. (3) It will help me focus where my computational efforts are going, and help me tie together computational and experimental work. I don't think I'm really doing the course justice with these statements. Its impact on me was enormous. The people I met, the discussions I had, the multiple different ways of approaching a problem -- this was all fantastic.”

“I plan to start my independent career working on projects at the interface of chemistry/biology/physics. My experience has primarily been in chemistry and physics; I have had limited experience in biology. I now feel more comfortable working on projects in biology.”

“I think I have changed from thinking of biophysics as looking at physics problems in biology to thinking of biophysics as a way to solve the problems in biology. I realize now much more that biological relevance is important.”

"The course was successful in integrating the biological, computational and physical sciences. Having a mix of students from these various fields was the most valuable in terms of exchanging thoughts and ways of thinking about problems."

"I think that it very valuable experience to work with people from different background. Overall, this course is my treasure throughout my whole life. I would like to thank faculty members of this course, TAs, other students and all the people that helped this course."

"The course will definitely influence my career because it has been a positive experience. I have learnt a lot and met a lot of people. Also I believe the course has tried to communicate passion and enthusiasm for science."

"I now understand the meaning of hard work and long hours. Seriously though, I think my fire for science has been refueled and I'm ready to continue my science with renewed passion."

"As a computational biologist, the Physiology Course was a wonderful opportunity for me to learn in detail the approaches and techniques of cell biology. Despite my very high expectations for the course, I must confess that I was still impressed with the quality of every aspect of the course, from the morning lectures to the late evening research in the laboratory. Altogether the course experience was incredible and will be invaluable for me throughout my career. I would whole-heartedly recommend attending the course to anyone interested in high quality biology research."

"This course reminded me why I do science- because it’s fun! For the past six months I’ve been so focused on getting a paper out the door that I wasn’t able to enjoy it."

"I have realized the enormity of social aspects of the biological community. I am encouraged to have met so many 'giants' in the field and been able to have meaningful and fun conversations with them. I am much more motivated to keep up discussions with other scientists about my and their work."

"The lab portion of the course blew my mind. I wish I could have such a dynamic, exciting, collaborative working environment all the time. Overall, I was extremely impressed that the faculty were willing and excited to share the most current research projects going on in their lab with us. This class sets a high standard for my normal research life. I think the relative amount of lab/lecture time for this class is perfect."

"Overall, I found the faculty and TAs very stimulating and excited to be taking this journey with us. I was extremely impressed by the helpfulness of the TAs in helping us get research done. I think this course has given me appropriate respect for tackling biological problems and has made me really question how interdisciplinary projects can be posed to be tractable. I think the most important thing this course has done is to introduce me to a number of people and biological techniques and systems that I can go to for help in the future."

"Most of the lectures were incredible. In many cases I feel like I will take home appreciation for different types of science as well as a new perspective on my own work."

"Not only was the course fantastic because of what I learned in the formal course setting, but I also met a number of people (students and faculty) who I had conversations with that effected my view about what type of research I might want to do in the future. I am sure that I will see many of these people again and I'm very glad that I got this chance to meet them."

"I will highly recommend this course to others. I think that students from a physical/computational science background will particularly benefit."

"Thanks Ron and Tim! I came to this course with very high expectations and it ended out being even better than I had hoped for! In summary, I was blown away by this course, but I would suggest the following for improvement: 1.) More traditional cell bio signaling (and less noise). 2.) More time with the theory/computational instructors 3.) More lectures (and/or instructors) from experimental physics/engineering using novel experimental tools to quantitatively study cell biology. 4.) A more formal intro to image processing, simulation, etc. . .” (We are incorporating many of these ideas into the 2005 curriculum.)"

"I think the main portion of this course was put on the laboratory experience. By going through three projects, from the question setting to the presentation, I learned the strategies, techniques, how to interpret the results, how to analyze and how to present. Also, I think that the experience to work with students from different institutes from all over the world was so precious. They have different attitude, speed of action, scientific view, background and interests. So I enjoyed the heterogeneous composition of students."

"The Faculty members and TAs were so thoughtful to each of us, and whenever we had troubles, they were ready to help us. They always motivated us, and when we are stuck in a difficulty in our projects, they cheer us up. I also think that students were teaching each other and this cooperation helped us to put our project forward at incredibly high speed."

"I have come to feel keenly that the collaboration between experimental biology and the computational biology would be crucial not only in Physics, but also in other field in Biology. We, experimental biologists are making a great amount of data, more than we can analyze, so if I am to take high throughput approach in the future I would definitely make a collaboration with physicists. I also learned in this course how modeling helps us to interpret our experimental results and to confirm the kinetics involved in the phenomena."