Hello, my name is Jennifer Gutierrez. I am an intern working at the University of Utah focusing on environmental engineering. These past two weeks which should have been week 4 and 5 were postponed because of some personal issues. Although life isn’t always the easiest working with the staff at the U has been amazing. They have been extremely understanding of everything, and now I can resume my internship and continue to work remotely for another two weeks!
Monday, July 11th: This Monday I focused on the UGS Miscellaneous publication 169 chapters D and I which were of particular interest. Reading through chapter D I learned about the thermal characteristics of the Roosevelt Hotsprings system. A few of the main topics in chapter D were surface thermal anomalies, thermal groundwater regime, and many figures explaining different thermal characteristics. Chapter I focused on carbon dioxide flux and carbon and helium isotopic composition of soil gases. The different fluxes and isotopic compositions assess the potential hydrothermal activity. 
Tuesday, July 12th: On Tuesday I worked on a google sheet where I am going through 95 references from an important article to determine whether they are searchable and downloadable. This is a pretty repetitive process, so I won’t elaborate too much. Although many would probably think this is boring I enjoy skimming through all the articles and seeing the organized data.
Wednesday, July 13th & Thursday, July 14th: Wednesday and Thursday I researched standard diffusion samplers! Professor Brian wants to look into diffusion samplers and figure out whether we can recharge and reuse them; this would be more economical. It would also allow us to do a lot of helium sampling. I reviewed different diffusion sampler techniques and made a list of all methods that included the analysis of helium. 
Friday, July 15th: On Friday I spent time reviewing everything I’d learned and written down. Through this internship, I have learned that reading research articles is not easy. It takes me a long time to get through papers because every couple of words there are words that I do not know. Although this makes reading timely it also helps try and understand the research. I write down words I do not know and search them up to understand. 
Saturday, July 16th: Saturday I got to attend the Cocktails for Science party! My friend Natalie arrived from her internship in Texas and we got to drive up together. At the party, we washed many glasses and got many thank you’s from all of the happy guests. I got to talk to a man named Ralf who sent Natalie and me an email to stay in contact for other possible internships! Overall, the party was very fun!
There are no comments published yet.