Madison And Beyond

This coming summer, 2015, (I know it's still a semester and a half away) I have kind of two options that I am considering. Going back to Madison and continuing the research I am currently doing Participating in another REU, research experience for undergraduates program, at a different university.  Right now my heart is kind of torn. On one side I love Madison and would go back in a heartbeat. I love the research I am currently doing and it is in the field of chemistry, inorganic, I will probably end up in. On the flip side I'm kind of interested in going somewhere else to do inorganic research elsewhere. Madison is guaranteed pretty much, somewhere else is not. Going to Madison would be a benefit to my senior project/senior "thesis", going somewhere else is not. Going somewhere else is a new experience and different research, going to Madison is not. I'm so lost and confused right now and I can't see where I'm supposed to be. I have until the end o...

It's done. My time here is up. It's crazy and weird. Yesterday when we were cleaning the lab it was hard at times. Thinking we're not coming back here. I really have enjoyed my summer here, though I'm happy to get to see people back home. This week was the most unproductive in terms of results. We only got one semi-positive result and the week was a slow one in general. I had my first poster session this week that was interesting. The presentation went fairly well I think. I'll get to do three more poster presentations before the school year is out. To my people back home, see you soon! The capital at night.  Doing my presentation This lovely lady came to see me!! With my poster.  After After Before Before Three layers!

I know I've been gone for a while, but I was in Chicago last weekend and weekends are when I have time to update you. So For the past two weeks, or really since the beginning of this month, I've been running two reactions/workups at the same time. Sometimes it is fine and great to do that, but at other times a reaction just ends up getting neglected for a time. But progress is being made. One the main summer project we have only one more step of the five step synthesis left! It's pretty exciting. "My" project is going slower on the other hand. Hopefully we can get somewhere with that soon! (In the next week I guess) This past weekend the three of us went to Chicago because Dr. Nutbrown was running a half marathon. We did lots of fun things including eating Chicago deep dish pizza!! It was a long weekend, but a fun one.  We had our last week of seminar this past week. No more learning and free lunches! I'll miss that. Last night Dr. Nutbrown and I went to a M...

Ahhh ordinary. My summer has been anything but. I finally finished what I started two weeks ago today on Tuesday. Then I did the next step in the synthesizing the next compound. I'll almost be ready for experiments! It's exciting really. If this week goes well then I can do experiments the rest of the weeks here! Hopefully cross my fingers. I got to go to the summer college group this week and a women's breakfast. It was SO good to be around and meet some new people! I like Madison, a lot. I like the life and routine and I'm enjoying my time in lab. Learning a lot of new things. Like I get to learn about boron NMR next week. Fun stuff! Mass Spectroscopy Sample...looks good!! (See our weight vs. the number at the bottom) Pretty Crystals...and more yellow The TLC set up. Filtered Crystals with Frost The whole TLC set up

Hello All! I hope your fourth was fabulous. I know mine was. Remember, I've picked up a new project, the stinky one, besides helping to finish up step one in the previous synthesis (You know the yellow one). Well this week at one point Monday or Tuesday I had four separate projects that I needed to run. Only two got done that day. It was crazy. I needed to filter, neutralize, rotovap, and more to three different solutions/mixtures. I finished all the things I need to do with the yellow stuff, minus characterization, but the stinky stuff is another story. I still need to do a vacuum distillation tomorrow. We'll see how it all ends up. Hopefully well! I did get to enjoy two fireworks shows. The Elver Park fireworks were pretty impressive, see video above for an idea of the grand finale. I also went to Noah's Ark Water Park and went almost vertically down ten stories on my back! I was pretty proud of myself for getting out of my comfort zone so much. And a friend came to v...