I had never been to Houston or had lab experience before being presented with the opportunity at NEWT so I didn’t know what to expect arriving at Rice, but I was blown away by everything. The city, the university, the humidity, and after meeting them, my fellow interns. I felt honored to be able to share this experience with such talented and capable people.
As much I enjoyed being at Rice it was nice to get back to the dry heat. Since arriving in my lab on Wednesday I have been incredibly busy. In the 4 days I’ve been at the lab I’ve: aligned my expectations with my mentor and PI, learned how to make Iron (II,III) Oxide nanoparticles, made two different syntheses of these NPs, learned how to clean glassware, and have helped my mentor move to a different lab. Things have been moving (at times overwhelmingly) fast and I’ve learned a lot thanks to my mentor who has been incredibly patient with me and has been more than happy to answer the hundreds of questions I’ve had.
For next week I’ll learn what APTES and Chitosan are and I’ll be adding these compounds to the Iron Oxide NPs and we will finish moving more things to the new lab.