Hello everyone! My name is Giada Amundson and I am doing organic chemistry at Scripps. The past 7 weeks have flown by and this is my last week in the lab. This week was slower but a very good last week in lab. I am so grateful for the amazing experience I was able to get here. I learned so much, and have greatly enjoyed this lab and all of the people in it. I am very sad to be leaving, but excited for my future now that I can use all of the knowledge acquired here (chemistry and non-chemistry related).
Monday, July 24
This is my last week in the lab, which is crazy. The time here has flown by. I decided that I am going to be giving a presentation at our group meeting this Thursday. I am going to share the information about all of the science that I have done in the lab, and the data that I have collected. So I worked on that all morning. Then I went for a coffee chat with Keary Engle, the lab’s Principal Investigator. He gave me some very good insight into my future, which I really took to heart. The rest of the day I worked on my presentation.
Tuesday, July 25
This morning I am working on my presentation again. I am running some small experiments and taking pictures of the data. This information is stuff that I have found in my research, such as the base we were using at the beginning of my time here is hygroscopic. This means it absorbs moisture from the air, so that was why we ran our experiments in the glove box. I just worked on my presentation for the rest of the day. I think it is good that I am putting a lot of time into this presentation because presenting scientific research is pretty hard to explain.
me in the glove box
Wednesday, July 26
I started today by practicing my presentation with my mentor. He gave me some notes on things to fix, so then I changed those. I worked a lot on my presentation again today. But at 1, everyone in the lab helped to reorganize all of the chemicals in our lab because the Environment, Health, and Safety team is going to be going to all of the labs at Scripps tomorrow and do an inventory of all of the chemicals. After that, I practiced my presentation even more.
Thursday, July 27
This morning I worked on my presentation even more because I am presenting later today. I want my last presentation in the lab to go well. Then I helped my mentor to quench some of the “spicy” chemicals that we found yesterday when we were doing inventory. Then we had our group meeting at 2 today. I was super nervous going into the meeting because I was presenting first, but I think that the past few days of just practicing and practicing made it easier. I presented my science to everyone in the lab and gave them all a big thank you for being so welcoming and just great people to go on this adventure with. My presentation went really well though. Then I helped my mentor with his project since I finished mine and my presentation. I ran a column for him, as well as 2 separations.
quenching chemicals
Friday, July 28
Today is my last day in the Engle Lab. I am so sad to leave but so grateful for this experience. I finished the separatory funnel reactions from yesterday and rotovapped those down into a solid. Then I took NMRs of those samples, and they looked really good. Then it was time for my going away party. The whole lab went to a restaurant for my last day. It was so nice to have one last lunch with everyone in the lab. I will miss them all so much. When we got back, we took some final group pictures and my last tea time with my mentor. My mentor had to catch a flight, so I said my final goodbye to him. Then I went to a meeting about process chemistry which is large scale chemistry to make large batches of chemicals for pharmaceutical companies. After that, I said goodbye to the rest of the lab members and made my way out of the lab for the last time.
group lunch / my going away party
katherine and me
me and my mentor, skyler
me and keary engle, lab’s pi
skyler, me, katherine, keary engle
Saturday and Sunday, July 29 and 30
I spent my last weekend going to the beach a lot. I also went to Belmont Park and rode the roller coaster and went night swimming one last time. I also watched the sunset a few more times on the beach. It was a great last relaxing weekend in beautiful San Diego, California.
Thank you for going on this 7 week adventure with me. I truly loved my time at Scripps in the Engle Lab.
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