|
Undergraduate Life: Research's First Beginning
|
|
I've obtained my
bachelors' of science in chemical engineering and chemistry at the University
of California, Irvine. At first I was only a chemical
engineering major, but during my third quarter of my freshman year, I've
gained an interest in chemistry as well. I owe it to Dr.
Tobias, my undergraduate research advisor. Maybe I just like the
style in which he taught, but it was the first time I was really
interested in chemistry, after two quarters of general chemistry, that
is.
When I was a kid, I thought chemistry was all about mixing colorful solutions and drinking them to turn into cool monsters. Tom and Jerry was all wrong on this! The colorful chemicals are often the toxic ones, from what I've learned in inorganic chemistry. Toxic or air sensitive. Can you say, "go boom?" I never understood inorganic chemistry though. What was that all about? Organic chemistry, was another mystery. I don't really know who put the mystery in chemystery. I had great fun in the organic chemistry labs, but I don't really understand what went on behind all of it. It was interesting nonetheless. At the time I was taking too many courses to really understand what was going on behind organic chemistry. I thought I would be more interested in organic chemistry than any other chemistry, but I guess it all depends on your professors. Its the style that matters. Some styles click, some don't. What may work for most people may not work for me. Well, since Dr. Tobias was the one who interested me in chemistry, I thought I could do some research with him. He had me started out learning some programming from his graduate student, Will. Other than my chemistry research, I also did some research in the biomedical engineering department with Dr. Aguilar at the Beckman Laser Institute. That was pretty fun, too. We got to wear laser goggles, though I never fired the Nd YAG laser before. pooh! Dr. Aguilar now works at the University of California, Riverside in the Mechanical Engineering department |