Eukaryon History and Milestones
Eukaryon is a nationally recognized and award-winning publication that features the best of undergraduate scholarship in the life sciences at the Lake Forest College. It is led and published by a 100% student editorial board.
In 2003, Dr. Shubhik DebBurman (Disque D. & Carol Grame Deane Professor of Neuroscience and Biolochemistry and Molecular Biology) received a National Science Foundation grant as an Assistant Professor in which he had initially proposed to create the journal Eukaryon to highlight the research-rich undergraduate teaching and faculty/student collaborative research labs in the life sciences at Lake Forest College. He began the journal in 2004, and the first online issue came out in 2005.
A student-only editorial board of 14 was formed in 2005-2006. The journal created three boards (Review, Copy-editing, and Publication) that work together to manage the flow of the peer-review process from start to finish. The 2006 is issue was the first peer-reviewed edition. That year, the journal also added it’s first disclaimer: “Eukaryon is published by students at Lake Forest College, who are solely responsible for its content. The views expressed in Eukaryon do not necessarily reflect those of the College.”
The 2007 issue was the first issue that as both online and in print, when then President Lake Forest College provided funds to Eukaryon to print 20 copies.
Since then, this board has grown and matured to independently exist at the college with full editorial freedom to publish an annual issue of this journal every March (which it has successfully done even during the pandemic). Eukaryon got its own Library of Congress ISBN number that year.
As editorial board members, Lake Forest College students gain valuable skills in learning science writing, and they learn to peer review and critique each other’s work, copy edit the chosen articles and publish them for web and print formats.
In 2014, Eukaryon celebrated its 10th Edition with special emphasis.
In 2016, it did not publish a print version of the journal due to deadline complications.
During the pandemic, the journal editorial board was hard hit and the board fell to just one member at the end of 2021. It still managed to publish online versions but with no print issues in 2021, 2022, and 2023. The board restarted in renewed fashion in 2021-22. The print issues returned in 2024.
In the past 22 years, over Lake Forest College students have served as members of this organization and over 300 Lake Forest College students have been published in it, which is such a badge of honor for all student and alumni resumes. Future career paths of our several students have been influenced by their multi-year involvement.
Each year, the board chooses an annual theme to highlight in that issue with journal cover art and special features articles. New members are invited to apply to join Eukaryon each spring. Each new member writes a features article for the annual issue of the year they join.
Our students and faculty have led education innovation presentations at several national meetings over the past two decades. In 2011, Eukaryon was recognized with a First-Place honors in the Science Education session of the national nnual Society of Developmental Biology meeting.
Over the years, scientists from R01 universities and biotech companies have reached out to Lake Forest College student authors because of the quality of their academic work published in Eukaryon. Some student authors have even received job offers.
Eukaryon has helped inspire many other colleges and universities to start their version of similar journal in the past two decades. In fact, two campus publications at Lake Forest College were created after early consultation with Eukaryon.
Eukaryon Editors-in Chief
Issue 2005: None
Issue 2006: Katrina Brandis ‘06
Issue 2007: Michael Zorniak ‘07
Issue 2008: Shruti Pore ‘08
Issue 2009: Shaun Davis ‘09
Issue 2010: Michael Fiske ‘10
Issue 2011: Alina Konnikova ‘11
Issue 2012: Saajidha Rizvydeen ‘12
Issue 2013: Ashley Reich ‘13
Issue 2014: Vicki Gerentes ‘14
Issue 2015: Jeremy Boeing ‘15
Issue 2016: Tyler Kaplan ‘15
Issue 2017: Ana McCracken ‘17
Issue 2018: Aasimah Tanveer ‘18
Issue 2019: Chisomo Mwale ‘19
Issue 2020: Ruqia Bibi ‘20
Issue 2021: Zubair Mohammed ‘21
Issue 2022: Katrina Topacio ‘22
Issue 2023: Tracey Nassuna ‘23
Issue 2024: Raneem Samman ‘24
Issue 2025: Lira Zajmi ‘25
Issue 2026: Jeremy Levin ‘26
Forthcoming Issue 2027: Shanamon Chandvimol ‘27
Eukaryon Faculty Advisors
Issues 2005-2007: Dr. Shubhik DebBurman
Issues 2008 and 2009: Dr Pliny Smith
Issues 2010 and 2011: Dr. Shubhik DebBurman
Issues 2012 and 2013: Dr. Sean Menke
Issues 2014-2016: Dr. Shubhik DebBurman
Issues 2017 and 2018: Dr. Alexander Shingleton
Issues 2019-2021: Dr. Ann Maine
Issues 2021-2024: Dr. Flavia Barbosa
Issues 2025-2027: Dr. Shubhik DebBurman