I think the biggest observation that I’ve made from working in a lab is that I tend to forget the big picture very often when working in the lab. As a chemistry major working in an organic synthesis lab, everything takes very long to complete. Every step takes so long and because of this I tend to work on the same thing for a week or two. Because of this, I have the full tendency to forget that it IS a problem that I am helping solve in the scientific community. I also can’t help but get frustrated when I see my mentor working on three or five reactions in a day when I am struggling to complete one. If I’ve mentioned this before it’s only because Chemistry is a process-and a long one. But my mentor reminds me that the process determines the outcome and is therefore more important than I realize.

Why did I start my blog off like this?

Well mostly because of MARC. This whole summer I worked on a project that had me spend everyday working on a presentation that reminded me why I do what I do and the impact it is having. It was a good reminder knowing that I spend the good part of the day in a  lab without windows doing what seems difficult and redundant for a very good reason!

A small victory that I’d like to mention now is this-I have never been very good at analyzing HNMR’s. In fact, I am pretty terrible. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this, an HNMR is basically a means of determining the structure of a compound based on these peaks you see on a sheet of paper that can be in any location with several splitting patterns and levels of intensity. Artur,my mentor, noticed this and ran me through what was by far one of the best explanations of analyzing NMR’s that I’ve been given. I believe I am progressing now!

Which leads me to another thing that I am grateful about this summer- my mentor. Mentors have it so difficult. They are doing experiments, probably writing rviews, making weekly progress reports, preparing for group meetings, they are researching daily, still learning themselves, and they still need time to eat, go home, rest, AND they are working as your teacher. Maybe you don’t have a similar experience as I do, but let me just take this time to say my mentor is a superstar. With three projects and another student-he still has time to sit down with me and explain things that I often times can wrap my head around. Not only this but he also treats me as a fellow scientist which means that my work is valuable and that I cannot continue to make the same mistake everyday and excuse it because I am an undergraduate. He chooses to challenge me intellectually at any given time and still maintains a great level of patience. I remember I continued making the same mistake when drawing the same structure for three days straight-I can’t lie I didn’t understand why we were making this compound (you know, the cyclic guanidine that my ENTIRE work revolves around) and he finally sat down with me and provided me with all the papers he’d read about the methodology we were working on and he explained how my project began and its importance. I believe this is the best quality in a mentor-someone who wants you to do work but also wants you to have a DEEP level of understanding. I hope that if  I do become a professor that I will be able to be even a small bit like my mentor.

Moving on!

Recently, I worked on a swern oxidation. I had only ever heard about swern in class and I was so excited to know some of the chemistry I was being exposed to actually had some value in the chemist’s world! Let me tell you-working with this reaction will remind you of raw potatoes! Or broccoli, I mean the smell is so unbelievably strong! Anyway, I will actually be purifying the compound that I oxidized tomorrow so I don’t think I’ll be wanting to eat potatoes for a long time.

Well, I mentioned a bit of my general observations, appreciation for my mentor, and a small bit of the chemistry that I’ve been so fortunate to deal with-I guess I should end with some closing remarks.

For one, working in a chemistry lab is fantastic. If you ever get a chance to work in one-take the opportunity and take this time to ask all the questions you believe to be naive because this is hands on experience and it is the greatest form of learning in my opinion. Also, always work your hardest not your fastest. Finally, take time if you do get involved in a summer program, take this time to get to know the other interns-these people are truly amazing and I had so much fun relating to students like me on the same level where we can talk about our research and methods and actually understand each other-it feels rare outside of the setting. Also, people from other disciplines are also super amazing and learning what everyone was doing in their lab with their time is so impressive. It makes me proud to be a part of this generation.

Well that’s my two cents.