I’m Jerry Chen, a student of the University of Toronto at the St. George campus. I am currently enrolled in the Molecular Genetics Specialist program, as well as a Statistics and Computer Science Minor. I have strong interests in molecular biology, medical sciences, mathematics, statistics, computer science, and many more that I will elaborate in this page. See the side table of contents to easily navigate to relevant sections.
Ever since I was young, I was deeply interested in science and its frontiers. Beginning with
astronomy in early elementary school, developing into biochemistry throughout middle school,
and finally settling on molecular biology and genetics during high school, I have dedicated
much of my academic career to the pursuit of knowledge within the Life Sciences. My dream
is to decrease the presence of suffering in the world through the advancement of the
Life Sciences.
In high school, I took as many AP courses in the sciences as I could, including Biology,
Chemistry, Physics 1 and 2, Psychology, Computer Science, and Calculus. Now, at UofT, I
have been able to pursuit this passion in the form of rigorous academic courses. In my
first year, I took the main Life Science stream of courses, including enriched equivalents
of chemistry and math (i.e. CHM151 and MAT137). I found first year to be profoundly
insightful, and it solidified my dedication to research within molecular biology, as I
enjoyed BIO130 greatly. So, I applied to the Molecular Genetics Specialist program in the
spring, and was accepted.
In my first year, I became acquainted with a myriad of laboratory techniques, including:
In the summer of 2025, I decided to become familiar with more laboratory techniques, including:
For these techniques, to ensure I properly understood them, I made a short video for each
one explaining the motivation, mechanism, methodogy, and applications.
After planning out my degree, I realized that 20 credits, three programs, and four years is
too little to encapsulate all of my interests. At first, I contemplated taking additional
years, but for financial reasons, decided otherwise. Instead, I dedicated myself to
self-study to learn all the topics that I would not have time to take a course for
(see self-study section). My intention with learning various topics is to provide myself
with a wide breadth of knowledge within the Life, Statistical, and Computer Sciences to
further the frontier of molecular biology and genetics.
Although I had not been particularly interested in mathematics during Secondary school, I
developed a strong interest for mathematical theory and applications after MAT137 and
MAT223, which are Calculus with proofs and linear algebra I respectively. Moreover, I
originally planned on enrolling in a computer science major along with a life science
program, and thus took CSC148 and CSC165 as well. Although I am no longer pursuing a
computer science degree at UofT, I am still planning on learning programming skills to
aid in my productivity in research and everyday life. I believe that honing in on my
mathematical skills will aid my pursuits in Life Science, as there is particularly large
overlap with bioinformatics and statistical analysis.
I have done very little in terms of statistics during high school. Although I self studied
AP Statistics during the summer of my 3rd year of high school, I did not take the exam and
thus my qualifications for statistics is weaker than my other mathematics. That being said,
I believe statistics is the most significant mathematical science for molecular genetics,
especially when it comes to topics such as genetic analysis or bioinformatics. Thus, I am
planning on enrolling in a statistics major in my 2nd year, and I am self-studying python
data analysis libraries during the 2025 summer, including NumPy, Pandas, and MatPlotLib.
By the end of summer 2025, I hope to have a working understanding of bioinformatics tools
and data analysis libraries that will aid me in my research career.
BIO120H1 and BIO130H1
These are the first year biology courses required for all students in the Life Science
stream. I found both courses to be interesting, but especially BIO130.
MAT137Y1
This is the first year math course for most students in math adjacent disciplines (e.g.
actuarial science, computer science, statistics, etc), as well as math majors. Having done
AP Calculus AB in high school, MAT135/136 wouldn’t have been as enriching as I would like,
and thus I decided to enroll in MAT137. Although I spent longer on this course than all my
other courses combined, it made me deeply interested in math and logic.
CHM151Y1
This is the first year chemistry course for chemistry specialists. Although CHM135/136 was
recommended for Life Science students, having done AP Chemistry, I thought that the
additional topics covered in CHM151 would be more beneficial. I enjoyed the organic
chemistry portion greatly, and encouraged me to take the higher level second year organic
chemistry course (CHM249). However, the physical chemistry portion was not as rigorous as
I would have liked, so I am taking physical chemistry for chemistry students in second year
(CHM222) rather than the one recommended for Life Science students.
MAT223H1 and MAT224H1
These are the linear algebra courses offered for those not in the math specialists programs.
I enjoyed these courses greatly, particularly MAT223 due to its excellent coordination.
After MAT224, I gained foundational skills in linear algebra that will aid me in machine
learning and other statistical methods.
CSC148H1 and CSC165H1
These are the first year foundational computer science courses for out-of-stream computer
science students. Originally, I had planned to do a computer science major along with a
life science specialist. Although I was accepted into the program, I decided not to pursue
it, as I believed that a statistics major would be more appropriate to complement my
molecular genetics specialist. That being said, the courses were very interesting, and I am
planning to pursue computer science outside of university in the forms of projects and
self-studying.
MAT246H1
This is a course in abstract mathematics, taken originally because I wanted to keep my
options open for a math major. However, now it acts as an elective course as I decided not
to pursue a math degree, but its content was still interesting
ECO101H1 and ECO102H1
These are the first year courses for economics students. These courses were taken to act
towards my breadth requirements, and thus I did not pour in as much effort as other courses.
That being said, the content was still very interesting and has changed the way I have
thought about the world.
CLA201H1
This is a course in latin and greek terminology in science, also taken to act towards my
breadth requirements.
Due to my limited time during my undergrad, I am unable to take all of the courses that
would interest me. Many of these courses include topics within physiology, cells and
systems biology, computer science, and even psychology. As a result, much of my free time
is devoted to self-studying these topics.
However, since my time is limited, I chose first the topics that would be most immediately
applicable to research in molecular genetics and biochemistry. Of these topics, physiology,
machine learning, data analysis, and bioinformatics are particularly notable topics that I
have since began to self-study.
To keep track of my progress within these topics, I have recorded “lectures” for each topic,
which can be seen in the LECTURES page. However, I am not claiming to be anything more than
a curious student with these lectures, as my knowledge within these topics are at best
surface level, as my qualifications are just undergraduate education.
At first, I was simply interested in HTML, CSS, and Javascript, and thought that a personal
website was an appropriate checkpoint for that topic. However, after some thought, I came
to realize that creating my own website wasn’t just a way to show a dedication to web
development (Note: I am NOT a web), but also to organize my ambitions, accomplishments,
and hobbies into a passion project that would serve as a nice place for anyone to look at
my ambitions.
Of course, this website doesn’t encapsulate my entire person, as the majority of personal
details have not been included (for obvious reasons). However, the goal of this website is
to provide an easy place for both myself and others to understand my academic and
intellectual ambitions