From lab newcomer to award-winning researcher

Ava Haider did not plan on falling in love with research. But after joining Ahmed Hamid’s lab in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, the Auburn senior found herself drawn to mass spectrometry and analytical problem-solving. Now majoring in chemistry and chemical engineering, Haider has turned that experience into one of the defining chapters of her undergraduate career. 

That work is being recognized through the Warren O. Haggard Award, endowed by Warren Haggard, an Auburn chemistry alumnus, to support undergraduate research and help students share their findings at professional conferences. For Haider, that mission has already come full circle. 

This year, she presented her work at the inaugural Southeastern Mass Spectrometry Meeting and won the best poster award. Her project, developed in Hamid’s lab, tackles a time-consuming data problem by helping researchers process results faster and with fewer errors. Just as important, it reflects how quickly she has grown from a student exploring research for the first time into one who can hold her own in a room full of scientists. 

Q: Research was not part of your original plan. What changed once you got to Auburn?

I never expected to do research, but Dr. Doug Goodwin suggested I reach out to Dr. Hamid because mass spectrometry is so widely used in forensic science. That was what first got me interested. 

I started in the lab in fall 2024, and I’m really glad I did. Research opened doors I had kind of closed for myself. For a long time I thought, “I don’t really want to go to grad school. That sounds like too much school.” But once you find something you actually care about, it changes the way you think about those possibilities. 

Q: What was it like to step into Dr. Hamid’s lab and begin learning that work for the first time?

A lot of it was learning how the instrument works and what the data mean. Mass spectrometry is a really complex instrument, and when I first started, it felt very foreign. You get multiple graphs immediately from the instrument, and they all mean different things. It takes time to understand what you’re looking at. 

But that has also been one of the most rewarding parts. I’ve really enjoyed those moments where something finally clicks and I understand how a piece of the instrument works or what the data are showing me. At first, it felt like a black box. Now I understand a lot more about what is happening inside it. 

Q: Your poster grew out of a very practical problem in the lab. What were you trying to solve?

We were working with a very large set of brain tissue data, and the amount of information coming back was enormous. We had to go through five or six different software programs to get a final output, and it took forever. Sometimes one batch of data would take three to five days to process, and it needed constant checking to make sure nothing crashed. 

We also noticed that some data points were missing or coming through incorrectly, so it became clear that the workflow needed to be improved. That led us toward building a Python package that could automate the process and replace the series of software tools we had been using. It made the workflow much more efficient and helped address some of the data issues we were seeing. 

Q: You then took that work to the inaugural Southeastern Mass Spectrometry Meeting, where you won best poster. What did that moment mean to you?

I was definitely nervous. I had never been to an academic conference like that, and I wasn’t fully confident yet in explaining the work to other people. 

But once I got there, I got to talk with a lot of people who already understood mass spectrometry, which made the conversations easier and more interesting. By the end of it, I felt more confident than I expected. I realized I knew more than I thought I did. 

Winning best poster was really exciting because it made me feel like the work mattered and that I had communicated it well. It turned something that had felt intimidating into a moment that made me feel surer of myself. 

Q: Looking back now, what has this experience changed for you?

I’ve been surprised by how much I like mass spectrometry and analytical chemistry. I had not really found an area of chemistry that felt like such a strong fit until this. I like the instrumentation, the problem-solving and the fact that it connects with so many different industries. 

Receiving the Warren O. Haggard Award has made that experience even more meaningful. I never expected to receive support specifically for doing research, and I think that made me want to pursue it even more. Knowing there is funding that helps undergraduates do research and present their work is really encouraging. Opportunities like that can make a real difference.