Coucou ! My name is Paroma Banerjee, or Pami, and I just finished up my junior year at the University of Pittsburgh. I am pursuing majors in Computational Biology and French with a certificate in West European Studies. Additionally, I am an undergraduate research assistant in an immunology lab at Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute and a member of the Computational Health Science Club, Women in Computer Science, and French Club.
During my free time, I enjoy hiking, yoga, pilates, cycling, and cooking! I love all kinds of animals, especially birds, and nature. Another one of my pastimes is language learning; I speak English and Bengali natively, have professional proficiency in French, and am learning Chinese.
This summer, I will be interning for Inserm at the Institut Cochin, linked with the CNRS (the French National Center for Scientific Research) and Université Paris Cité. Here, I will be working on epigenetic profiling and bioinformatics analysis, analyzing different algorithms used to map the influence of histone modifications on gene expression. The lab focuses on the development of blood-related diseases like leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes.
In addition to my internship, I will be working on a sustainability and sociolinguistics based research project to assess people’s perspective and language usage on sustainability, AI usage, and data structure infrastructure in the Île-de-France region! As a part of my project, I will be doing some field work: analyzing documents and conducting interviews with people in the region, which will provide me insight needed to write my paper on this by August. I am excited to see what I discover! Between my bioinformatics internship, my sociolinguistics research project, and cultural immersion, it will be a lot to take in, and I couldn’t be more excited.
Earlier this year, I was really torn between an internship program and a language immersion program. On one end, I was hoping for a bioinformatics research driven internship or experience to prepare myself for graduate school and explore more. On the other hand, I have been wanting to improve my French, especially orally, and though I have been taking classes every semester, a Francophone environment would really speed up the process for me to become truly advanced. Then I miraculously came across an 8-week internship program in Paris that would allow me to do both, and it is absolutely perfect for me. It wasn’t something I even thought to look for, which makes finding it all the more delightful.
I am truly looking forward to making the most of my experience. This would be the first bioinformatics internship, and entirely in French. I can anticipate a few of the possible challenges; talking in-depth about scientific research, with a lot of niche terms and technologies, can be a bit disorienting. Adding the fact that it is a foreign language does make it challenging in different ways. But I am looking forward to adjusting and learning not only more in-depth about the science and pipelines, but also to grow linguistically. I hope to become more confident to navigate challenges on my own. I know I will be very busy and constantly taking in new information, which may be a bit overwhelming at first but still exciting.
I have never been to France, or Europe in general, so I am preparing myself for cultural shock. As for Paris, the Eiffel Tower is beautiful, as well as the museums, but I would really like to spontaneously discover things on my own, rather than just looking up popular tourist spots. I find that it’s a more rewarding experience when there’s an element of surprise. I am also familiar with some of the social and cultural differences, but I won’t be used to it until I witness it in person. So I am very curious to see what I discover on the scientific and social end of things.
I have quite the sweet tooth and love desserts, so it goes without saying that I will be trying out a variety of French pastries and chocolates. Creamy desserts are my go-to, so crème brûlée, mousse, mille-feuille are must haves. Honestly, I am a foodie in general and there is so much diversity to food, especially a cosmopolitan city like Paris. I also enjoy going on walks, even more when there is a lot of variety in scenery and architecture. Paris is a hub for music, art, and theater, so I would like to immerse myself in that as well and possibly attend a show or two. I am looking forward to it, or as we say in French, j’ai hâte !