Peniella Irakoza

Undergraduate Research Ambassador

Peniella Irakoze is a microbiology major in her senior year at the UA. Research brings her a lot of joy, which makes being part of the URA team very enjoyable as she get to serve other students in finding research experiences within their fields of interest or getting exposed to the scientific environment. From her scientific and research experience, she has interned at Cornell University, Boston University, and at my current school University of Arizona as part of the NSF-Funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) over the summers from 2022 to 2024. During the periods of the academic school year, she has conducted research at the University of Arizona (Tempe campus), and at Phoenix College. For the past year and a half at the UA, she has done FOUR independent research with both professors and projects of her choice, where she has been not only conducting research but also learning how to better communicate her findings. She have also visited and learned what is done at National Laboratories through my winter internship at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Her future plans are to participate in the Fulbright Program for, which she is currently applying, and later go to graduate school to study Virology pertaining to HIV and Transposable Elements, or HERVs.