Letter from the Editor-in-Chief

Dear Readers,

It is with great pleasure that the editorial board of the Columbia Undergraduate Science 
Journal presents the 15th edition of our publication. Since 2006, CUSJ has aimed to 
create a space to highlight the accomplishments of undergraduate scientists and to fos-
ter the academic growth of students across all universities. To this end, this cycle saw a 
record number of submissions, and I am proud to witness the rapidly growing number of 
undergraduates gaining experience and accessing research opportunities.

This edition of CUSJ features research and review articles that traverse disciplines in 
their scope. Starting with our featured cover story on epithelial barrier integrity, this issue 
also explores topics from the microwave imaging of pipes to neural oscillations in sec-
ond language proficiency. I am ecstatic to see the wide variety among these papers, 
and hope that you will find them as insightful as our editorial board did. Coming from 
undergraduates working at universities located around the world, we hope that you ap-
preciate the importance of their diverse voices.
 
In a year where our organization had to move to a virtual format, producing an issue 
filled with outstanding research was more difficult than ever, and I would like to show 
my appreciation to everyone who was involved in the process. This includes but is not 
limited to the CUSJ editorial board, the CUSJ editorial committee, our Faculty Advisory 
Board, our advisors at Columbia Libraries, our peer reviewers, research mentors, and 
all students who submitted their work. In particular, thank you to our published authors, 
who demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the quality of their papers and who 
were always a joy to work with despite the lengthy editing process they were subjected 
to.

It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as the 2020-2021 Editor-in-Chief of CUSJ. 
I look forward to seeing the direction of the next editorial board and the future achieve-
ments of everyone involved. 

Thank you for reading CUSJ!

Sincerely,
Isabella Leite
Editor-in-Chief
Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal

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