SWOSU Day 32: bing qi lin and danny’s pink lemonade factory

Vincent’s joke: why is tungsten the best element?
read until the end to find out !!

Today was another day of efficacy testing, making sure the metal complexes we made all summer actually worked! My group, Danny and Vincent, made oxidation catalysts, and so our efficacy testing has been bleaching dyes—Rhodamine B today. 

Other projects, anti-fungal and carbon-carbon bonding, had their own efficacy testing to perform. Anti-fungal groups inoculated their agar plates, testing to see how much of the fungal pathogen their complex could kill. Carbon-carbon bonding groups performed gas chromatography! Other carbon-carbon groups used their free time while waiting for their turn to add Dr. Ellis’s wife, Dr. Shawna Ellis–Dr. Shellis, or pose for photos.

Aeka performing her anti-fungal experiment!

Jonathan W.’s before and after drawing of Dr. Shellis 😀 

Ethan’s model era⁉️

While the lab is usually the more exciting part of the day, today’s organic lecture was a fun surprise! Dr. Trellis made us ice cream using liquid nitrogen, and thoughtfully made two versions: one with lactose-free milk and one with regular cow’s milk. As a lactose intolerant person, I truly felt so seen (but I did try both…) Some of our classmates even got to help Dr. Trellis mix up the ice cream for everyone else to enjoy. 

Jonathan W. and Vincent making us ice cream, and Gavin being peak photographer per usual

Dr. Trellis’s signature lactose-free ice cream with Sughan’s chocolate syrup signature!!

Afterwards, we got to learn more about Dr. Shellis’s work and research, a lecture I was unfortunately late for as I had to run back and forth from the lab to take data points for my oxidation catalyst 😔. Hopefully, next summer, the synthchem students will be able to perform their own experiments with her research, like us with Dr. Hubin’s tetraazamacrocycles; though both of their research projects are super interesting, and I wish SSP would give us enough time to explore all three (including Dr. Trellis) of the professors’ research.

Our next block was our homework/study block, and now that we’re in the last week, the final stretch, we crammed for our psets due tomorrow, posters due Friday, and papers due Saturday (wish us luck!!), where Danny and I got to snipe some pretty sunset and night photos:

I’m so sad to leave, but at the same time, I’m excited to go home back to SF. I won’t miss the final week cram, but I definitely already miss everyone here 🙁 

were you waiting for vincent’s punchline?
why is tungsten the best element?

…because it’s such a W 😀

Emma

hi, im emma from sf!! i love love chemistry but also good asian food, so im excited to go back home, but i love everyone here! ill miss all our rx runs and pset trauma bonding 🙁