Graduate students with complicated equipment bustle around freshman Nora Pryor at the Nuclear Research Reactor. Unfazed, Pryor works alongside them to contribute her research towards developing radiopharmaceuticals as a safer alternative to chemotherapy. 

Pryor’s love for chemistry originated during her junior year of high school and led her to the University of Missouri, one of the top colleges for radiochemistry and few universities to house an on-site reactor. 

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“It’s really cool to be on the front end of progress and science,” Pryor said.

Through the Honors College, Pryor applied and was accepted into The Discovery Fellows, a research program that places students in labs and begins hands-on work from day one.

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The course was founded back in 2004, and allows “students [to] gain insight into the professional world, enhance their knowledge base and critical thinking skills, and better prepare themselves for their path after they graduate from MU,” according to the Mizzou website.

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Pryor saw the advantages of joining and has since poured her efforts into the cause almost daily: The scholarship that tags along with the experience calls for maintaining an average of eight hours of work per week. 

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However, the necessary time devoted can rise to include up to ten hours per week. Pryor divides up the time between the lab, group meetings and at-home research, often at the cost of giving up social activities with friends.

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“Nora is one of the most hard-working people I know. She has always been very passionate and ready to go after anything she wants to achieve,” her friend Claire Leonard said. 

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Proving her determination and ambition, Pryor fully dove into the opportunity that allowed her to select a professor to work with, before the first day of research even began. She sifted through profiles and candidates on the chemistry faculty page before settling on what she describes as a perfect match.

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“I wanted to be in a group led by a woman because chemistry can be such a sexist field… [I wanted] to be in a group where I felt my voice would be important and my skills would be recognized,” Pryor said. 

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After weighing her options, Pryor chose Dr. Heather M. Hennekens. They, along with five other group members The Discovery Fellows is composed of, set to work gathering information about radiopharmaceuticals and instilling them into a clinical setting.

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Their research will aid cancer patients by directly reducing a tumor better than chemotherapy, allowing the therapy to be more efficient and have fewer negative side effects.

“It’s very exciting to think I could be in a field that could potentially impact my life or my loved ones’ lives down the line,” Pryor said.

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The Discovery Fellows’ involvement is advanced enough that they are making certain compounds that have never been created- to the point where the student researchers get to help come up with the names for them. 

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“It’s very rewarding whenever you fail repeatedly and then something finally works. That’s really what research is,” Pryor said.

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Pryor says getting to work in a professional setting while exploring a potential future career- just as a freshman- has been the best part of her college experience so far. Through grueling hours, frustration and the elation that follows trial and error, Pryor has supporters applauding her each step of the way. 

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“I’m really proud of how she has already accomplished so much and how all of her hard work is paying off,” Leonard said.

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Yet, even with the doting and reassurance from well-meaning friends, Pryor admits to not always feeling in her element.

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“I’ve dealt with Imposter Syndrome or just not feeling very sure of myself in this position or like I’m not where I need to be, ” Pryor said.

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Still, Pryor immediately followed up the statement with how she combats her worries, saying that she knows it will take time to grow into the role she has laid out herself. Beyond living in the moment- and what she claims also feels like living in Ellis Library to study- she is eager to see what comes next.

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 “Five years from now I want to be in a PhD program for chemistry, specifically with an emphasis in nuclear medicine radiopharmaceuticals. In ten, I hope I can say that I’m a professor or running my own lab. I want to continue to contribute more to cancer treatment research; it can save so many lives,” Pryor said.

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All in all, Pryor and her research are set to make a great impact.