Learning to be a post-grad - keltingmeith's Chemistry Journal

[keltingmeith]

I kinda wanted to put in a bit here about my past but I kind of can't be bothered because it's so much. >.< So a quick summary:

Came to uni doing the Bachelor of Science Advanced - Research at Monash. Wanted to major in geology and pure maths, which turned into an extended major in pure maths and minor in geology, which became an extended major in statistics, then to a minor in chemistry, to a major in chemistry, and then swapped to an extended major in chemistry and a major in statistics. I now have those two majors, and am currently in honours. Currently on working on a fluorescent material for sensing applications. I might explain my project in more detail in future posts, we'll see how I go. I obviously can't go too much into specifics, as we don't want people stealing my research before I get a chance to publish it.

As for when I plan on updating - I do a lot of shifts at the synchrotron (less now that I'm near the end of honours - but, I plan on doing a PhD, so I'll get lots more then for future updates. ), and I also demonstrate some undergraduate classes, so I'll probably update during shifts, after teaching, and after marking. I might also update after some certain experiments.

If anyone has any questions about my stuff, what I'm doing, things I'd recommend, best food on campus, whatever, just message below and I will respond! First update will be tomorrow, potentially my last synchrotron shift is then. ;__;

[Joseph41]

Really looking forward to this one!

I think it's good for prospective uni students reading to see that majors etc. (even degrees!) change all the time; you're certainly not locked in to any one area or discipline.

[keltingmeith]

I think it's good for prospective uni students reading to see that majors etc. (even degrees!) change all the time; you're certainly not locked in to any one area or discipline.

Oh yeah, you have no idea. My friends got so pissed at me the amount of times I changed things. xD And even when I wasn't changing the major, I was constantly changing the emphasis of it - so focusing on one type of chemistry/maths, then later deciding to focus on other aspects of it instead and change my units.

---

Alright, synchrotron shift is almost over - but I've got no more samples to run, now I'm only here helping out one of the PhD students until my replacement arrives.

All in all, no luck. I'm going to have to talk to my supervisor to shift the focus of my PhD. I have the potential of more time, but this set of experiments is meant to be an initial one, and I don't think I'll have the time to run the follow-up experiments when we get more time. It's a shame, but I think there's still a few ways I can recover from this. I'll let you guys know.

A quick summary of what I'm doing, because the type of experiments being run at the synchrotron isn't really taught at high school (just some people learn what it is/how the whole thing works) - the synchrotron essentially makes really bright light, which in turn makes it a really good radiation source. Because of this, all of the experiments done here are ones that involve light and need this high radiation source. The type of experiment I'm running is called x-ray crystallography, some of the other types include infra-red spectroscopy, x-ray fluorescence microscopy, x-ray imaging, and a bunch of others I forgot.

Essentially, what I do is use diffraction laws and maths to figure out what my molecules look like on an atomic level. The important thing I'm looking for is molecule-sized holes in the structure (called pores). If I have those, then I can try my next set of experiments. If I don't, then we still do some of the experiments for the one with pores, but not all of them. I might explain some of these experiments in a later update when I actually try them out on some of my other things.

[AngelWings]

The type of experiment I'm running is called x-ray crystallography, some of the other types include infra-red spectroscopy, x-ray fluorescence microscopy, x-ray imaging, and a bunch of others I forgot.

This'll be a super interesting thread, I think.

Essentially, what I do is use diffraction laws and maths to figure out what my molecules look like on an atomic level. The important thing I'm looking for is molecule-sized holes in the structure (called pores). If I have those, then I can try my next set of experiments. If I don't, then we still do some of the experiments for the one with pores, but not all of them. I might explain some of these experiments in a later update when I actually try them out on some of my other things.

Nice! Sounds like fascinating research. Hope it all works out well for you!

[Absurdo]

ohhh synchrotron is exciting, do you do any research with synchrotron light?

[keltingmeith]

This'll be a super interesting thread, I think.

Can't tell if sarcasm.

My mum thinks I'm cool.

ohhh synchrotron is exciting, do you do any research with synchrotron light?

Erm - what do you mean by with synchrotron light? I mean, yeah, I use the light it produces - that's the whole point of going to the synchrotron. If you mean actually analysing the light itself for weird physics things, nope, and tbh I didn't think people actually did that in the first place.

---

So, today was fairly busy. Saw my supervisor for about 10 minutes, talked about things we want and the fact that we only have two months to work on it. We've decided to focus on my thesis instead of things that would make for some excellent research for papers and the like. But oh well, shit happens, I guess.

Meanwhile, this semester I'm an emergency demonstrator for CHM1022. Decided to look at a class I'll be taking in weeks 9/10, and oh boy - marks are very below average, and it looks like only about 2/3 of them will be continuing the unit by the time I get to them based on what has and hasn't been handed in. This should an interesting class...

[AngelWings]

Can't tell if sarcasm.

My mum thinks I'm cool.

Not sarcastic at all! Sorry if it came across that way. 
I actually visited the sister facilities on my interstate trip just before the winter break ended. Fascinating research indeed, even if I'm not really in a highly relevant area!

[keltingmeith]

Not sarcastic at all! Sorry if it came across that way. 

Hahah, sorry, was having a bit of a gag.

I actually visited the sister facilities on my interstate trip just before the winter break ended. Fascinating research indeed, even if I'm not really in a highly relevant area!

That's awesome! I'm assuming this is ANSTO up in Lucas Heights? What were you doing there? Funnily enough, I might be going there next year or the year after to do the same kind of research. (although there is also the chance we just send the samples there instead of doing it ourselves, but I know which I'd prefer to do...)

---

So, I've recently come to the realization I hate my honours project. :') I spoke to my supervisor about it, and we ended up talking about me doing a PhD with him, but in a slightly different field (essentially, from polymeric stuff to discrete stuff).

So, background: I'm currently working on a type of materials known as coordination polymers, sometimes referred to as a metal organic framework. Here's the wiki page on this stuff. A lot of the finer details are wrong, but a lot of the general information is good. Essentially, think metal atom, with organic molecule connecting it to another metal atom, with another organic molecule connecting it to another metal atom, etc.

The beauty of MOFs are that they cannot be dissolved (if someone claims they've dissolved one, then they've actually destroyed it). This isn't true for all polymeric things (otherwise we wouldn't have proteins!), but for CPs it is. However, this restricts me greatly with what I can actually do with them - and makes them quite boring IMO. It's great for industry and potential applications, but not for what I want to be able to do with chemistry. It doesn't help that I'm doing honours with one of my best mates, and I get really jealous hearing about all of the great things he gets to be able do.

So, I'm still in honours, because I've made it this far so I'm gonna bloody well finish (6 weeks until submission!). I still like research, and I still like science, but I want to do it in things I find interesting (no duh). So, my supervisor sat me down and asked me what I want to do, and I just essentially nerded out to him for almost a full of hour of ideas I'd had and things I'd found interesting, and we came up with a broad idea of what we might do, and that has invigorated me. I'm hoping to be able to look back to that conversation every time I lose motivation - and so far, it's working.

But I also e-mailed a guy in New Zealand, because I was thinking of moving there for a while. He responded just after the chat with my supervisor, so I had to really awkwardly do a "uh, yeah, sorry, decided to work with someone else" :')

I'll make sure to keep you all updated with the goss - I have a teaching round in two weeks, too, so get ready for some juicy demonstrator complaining! Finally learn how teachers talk about you guys.

[AngelWings]

Hahah, sorry, was having a bit of a gag.

All good. I know you meant no ill will.

That's awesome! I'm assuming this is ANSTO up in Lucas Heights? What were you doing there? ... (although there is also the chance we just send the samples there instead of doing it ourselves, but I know which I'd prefer to do...)

That's the one! I was on a program for final year undergrad students, everything ranging from biology to engineering - almost all relevant sciences were represented from different universities across Australia and New Zealand. Basically the point of the program was to convince uni students to conduct future research there for higher degrees and see what can be done. Would like to go back if possible myself, but we'll see about that. Got to get into Honours first! (Chances are looking sort of good at the moment.)

So, I'm still in honours, because I've made it this far so I'm gonna bloody well finish (6 weeks until submission!). I still like research, and I still like science, but I want to do it in things I find interesting (no duh). So, my supervisor sat me down and asked me what I want to do, and I just essentially nerded out to him for almost a full of hour of ideas I'd had and things I'd found interesting, and we came up with a broad idea of what we might do, and that has invigorated me. I'm hoping to be able to look back to that conversation every time I lose motivation - and so far, it's working.

But I also e-mailed a guy in New Zealand, because I was thinking of moving there for a while. He responded just after the chat with my supervisor, so I had to really awkwardly do a "uh, yeah, sorry, decided to work with someone else" :')

I'll make sure to keep you all updated with the goss - I have a teaching round in two weeks, too, so get ready for some juicy demonstrator complaining! Finally learn how teachers talk about you guys.

Ah, at least you have motivation now and had more than one choice, which is better than none!
Good luck with your thesis!

[keltingmeith]

That's the one! I was on a program for final year undergrad students, everything ranging from biology to engineering - almost all relevant sciences were represented from different universities across Australia and New Zealand. Basically the point of the program was to convince uni students to conduct future research there for higher degrees and see what can be done. Would like to go back if possible myself, but we'll see about that. Got to get into Honours first! (Chances are looking sort of good at the moment.)

That's awesome! I've actually got a friend that got employed there recently, it sounds like they work really damn hard for publicity events like that.

Ah, at least you have motivation now and had more than one choice, which is better than none!
Good luck with your thesis!

Thanks!

---

So, late update: I hate my research. A lot. But the end is in sight - thesis submission is on Friday at noon, and I've now finished my first draft. Both of my supervisors, and a couple of PhD students, are currently reading through everything I wrote, and are going to be sending me corrections for it all. Then just make those, print it off 5 times, get 4 of those bound, and I'm done until my thesis defence!!

Thesis defence is going to be super hectic, though. The whole thing is this massive process - basically, three academics will be sent my thesis. They each give it a read, and from that will decide what mark they think I deserve. They then meet up and, before talking about me, my supervisors will both walk in and tell the three academics what mark they think I deserve, and explain why I should get that mark (based on how hard I've worked during the year, how much of the research was my own and not them telling me what to do, etc.), and then the panel members will all reveal to each other what mark they think I deserve. The mark they say might change after what my supervisors have said, but might not. After that, they get me to walk into the room, and ask me to give an introduction to my project. I then spend 5-8 minutes explaining my project to them, and all I have with me for this is my thesis, a whiteboard, and some markers. After this introduction, they then grill me - and I mean GRILL me - for 45 minutes, in an attempt to find the boundary of what I do and don't know. Like, I've heard many a rumour of people leaving their panel meetings in tears because of how hardcore some of the questions and academics get in these things.

Anyway, after that, the panel members ask my supervisors if they questions they asked were fair, and after that will reassess the mark they gave us. Usually, the mark they initially gave us doesn't change - but if we bombed the defence, they'll lower it, or if they didn't find a breaking point (or it took them to ask outrageous questions to find it), they'll raise it. But supposedly the initial mark won't change by more than one or two, so it's really all based on my writing now for how well I'll do. >.< Here's hoping.

[K888]

Like, I've heard many a rumour of people leaving their panel meetings in tears because of how hardcore some of the questions and academics get in these things.

And in that moment, I decided to never pursue research.

[keltingmeith]

And in that moment, I decided to never pursue research.

You probably won't find it surprising that when I mention this to any of my friends who are doing honours but not in chemistry, they find it super strange and think it's barbaric.

[K888]

You probably won't find it surprising that when I mention this to any of my friends who are doing honours but not in chemistry, they find it super strange and think it's barbaric.

Is being cruel just a chemistry-specific thing?

I am so glad I get my honours just from having research units incorporated into my degree haha.

[keltingmeith]

Is being cruel just a chemistry-specific thing?

I mean, they also throw a free BBQ with cheap alcohol for us after the whole thing, which I don't think any other school does. So I guess it evens out?

[keltingmeith]

lol it's been a while

I meant to update this after submitting, but time just got away from me. :')

So, I'm all done. Completely. As of, like, a month and a bit ago. I've heard things through the grapevine, but nothing official, so I'll probably not mention anything just to be safe.

Thesis happened, and it looks gorgeous. 55 pages of pure gorgeousness (so many references, holy shit. A tenth of my thesis is just references). I'd put up a picture, but it has my name and student number and shit on it - but if anyone wants to see it, I might send a private message or something. Otherwise, not much to say, just that I did it, slept for a day afterwards, got stupidly drunk afterwards, and all of those things. Thesis defence was kinda fun, though. I got some stupid questions (my supervisors were in the room for it, I actually saw one do a double-take at one of the questions), got some fair questions. Start was really rocky - got asked about some weird thermodynamics. Like, I knew the thermodynamics about my entire system inside and out, but the question was very pointed, and I couldn't figure out which part of the system he was referring to, so I kinda just stumbled through all of it. End was great, though - last few questions I answered pretty well, and the very last one I knocked out of the park - it felt like a real mic drop moment.

See, my stuff didn't work. Firstly, intro to what I actually do above, quoted below:

So, background: I'm currently working on a type of materials known as coordination polymers, sometimes referred to as a metal organic framework. Here's the wiki page on this stuff. A lot of the finer details are wrong, but a lot of the general information is good. Essentially, think metal atom, with organic molecule connecting it to another metal atom, with another organic molecule connecting it to another metal atom, etc.

Now, when you build these things, you normally use one or more intramolecular interactions to control what comes out. These interactions are typically unknown until after you've developed a few of the systems, but you can make guesses. For my systems, my supervisor had worked with them enough that he knew it would be pi-interactions and coordination bonds. Lo and behold, he guessed correctly, and those were the driving forces for formation. They even culminated into this little motif that we call an "M2L2 macrocycle" (so named because it consists of two metals, two ligands, and it looks like a circle). Nothing wrong with that - in fact, the M2L2 macrocycle was great, because it was predicted by previous work. In fact, this M2L2 macrocycle was the whole reason we were saying we wanted to use these particular ligands. Like, all we really needed was a fluorescent ligand, but we needed a reason to use this particular one, and that reason was the M2L2 macrocycle.

The only problem that we later realised (after someone else did research on it), is that pi-stacking quenches the fluroescence. In fact, in solution, we saw a quenching of about 50%. So, when these things solidified into a crystal lattice in which every ligand is pi-stacking with another ligand, all of the fluorescence disappears. Which isn't at all what I wanted, and both my supervisors looked visibly upset when they realised what had happened. But oh well, shit happens.

Anyway, the question I knocked out of the park was quite simple, "so if your systems quench, does this mean the M2L2 macrocycle is a bad idea if you're aiming for fluorescent materials?" The reason it felt like such a mic drop is because, while this seems like a logical conclusion, there's actually promising ideas, backed up by research, that suggest you can still make these without pi-stacking - and if you do that, you can keep the M2L2 macrocycle and have the material stay fluorescent. So, I left with that answer, dropped the mic, and aced the ending. Both my supervisors mentioend that I impressed the people in the room, so I potentially gained an extra two marks from that.

---

Right now, I've transitioned into casual work as I wait for next year. I'm doing it with one of my honours supervisors - what he's done is organised for a "virtual" lab to be designed with help from a programmer in the physics department. It's actually really cool - it kinda pretends to be a real lab, in that you still have to do all the nuancy things you'd have to do if you were actually using the instrument (so in the case of a uv-vis, you still need to pick your cuvette, clean it, wipe down the sides, then fill it with a new solution). It's suprisingly fun to play with, I'm just play-testing it to make sure it's as true to the real thing as possible, and figuring out where to best put it into our current education system. If anyone has ideas, hmu.