Get PhD in Chemistry

I now have a timeline from my boss. Expected chapters and such. Now, when people ask me, “When do expect to be done/graduate?” I can say “next May.” Yes, as in another year from now. But that is ok. For starting for the first year and a half as part-time, 6 years is reasonable and is exactly within what I expected when I started. I am a happy camper right now (much like the dog with a bone.)

I have not had the opportunity to attend many conferences during my graduate career. In my second year, I attended a couple on my campus.

In July 2008, I have had the opportunity to attend the Rocky Mountain Conference on Solid State NMR (RMCAC), which is actually the Rocky Mountain Conference on Analytical Chemistry but it is a bigger NMR conference than analytical conference. This past week, I attended the Experimental Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Conference (ENC). Both conferences I learned a lot and met many people. Attending conferences is definitely a good use of time in graduate school.

The picture is of me on the beach at the ENC this past week over a lunch break.

One of the project in my research group is concerning explosives. The ACS had a press release about the research. I don’t work on this project, but it is still neat.

Concerns that terrorists could produce a new and particularly dangerous form of the explosive responsible for airport security screening of passengers’ shoes and restrictions on liquids in carryon baggage are unfounded, scientists reported today. The researchers used computer simulations to analyze a variety of potential peroxide-based explosives in the same chemical class as triacetone triperoxide (TATP). That powerful, easy-to-make explosive was used by the “shoe bomber,” Richard Reid, in his failed attempt to blow up a transatlantic airline flight in 2001. TATP has also been used by suicide bombers in the Palestinian Intifada.

I’ve taught 4 different courses at UNL since becoming a grad student here. Here’s the course descriptions of what I’ve taught:

Fall 2008 reci: 471/871. Physical Chemistry (4 cr.) Lect 3, rec. 1. Prereq: Chem. 114 and 116 with grades of at least C, or Chem. 221 with a grade of at least C; 1 yr. college physics; 1 yr. calculus. An introduction to classical physical chemistry with some emphasis on biological topics. The main emphasis is on the phenomenology and thermodynamics of phase equilibrium, chemical equilibrium, and electrochemical equilibrium. Other topics considered are kinetic theory of gases and chemical kinetics.

Spring 2008, Summer 2007, Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Summer 2006 reci: 109 General Chemistry I (4 cr.) Lect 3, lab and quiz 4. Prereq: 2 units high school mathematics including algebra and geometry. introduction to principles of chemistry for students in technical and vocational areas which require chemical training for their major field. Topics covered include states of matter and kinetic molecular theory, atomic theory and structure, chemical bonding and molecular structure, kinetics and equilibria, acid-base and oxidation-reduction reactions. Credit may be earned in only one of the courses: Chem. 105, 109, or 113. This course satisfies the Group VII Liberal Education Requirements.

Summer 2007 reci, Fall 2005, Spring 2005, Fall 2004 lab: 110. General Chemistry II (4 cr.) Lect 3, lab and quiz 4. Prereq: Chem. 109. Application of chemical principles to real systems including treatment of the chemistry of metals and nonmetals, nuclear chemistry, consideration of the organic chemistry of carbon, and biochemical reactions and metabolism.

In July, I did an interview for the recruitment office. The end result is this

As of June, I had finished 4 years of graduate school in physical chemistry. For some reason, the department only considers me a 5th year starting this month. I expected a PhD to take me 5-7 years. I highly doubt I will be done by the end of 5 years.

At this point, I still have to finish up some on-going projects, and apparently I need to start and finish one more. This summer I was able to do research full time all summer, instead of teach, which helped me get a lot done. I am teaching in the fall, but I will probably be teaching a thermochem for biochemists class, which will be difficult in terms of preparation, but more interesting than the gen chem I’ve been teaching the past 4 years.

So, that’s a basic update on this goal. There probably won’t be more updates for awhile as there are no more big things for me to do other than write my dissertation and defend, at which point, I’ll be done.

So, to achieve candidacy for a PhD in chemistry at UNL, you have to write an original research proposal no more than 15 pages (but you want to use 15 pages … and you find it’s hard to stay within the limit) not including the 1 page abstract. It is in the form of a grant, and then you have to defend it to your committee in a presentation.

It is an extremely stressful oral exam. Well, all the work up to it is.

I spent the last two months preparing for this exam, and I passed it on December 6. Turned in my paperwork on Monday, and I am officially a candidate for a PhD. As long as I do my research and write my dissertation, I should be able to graduate. It’s just a matter of time.

This is a 5-10 year thing, getting a PhD in chemistry. I know one person who might be out in 4, but he managed to get more research done in 4 years due to a lack of teaching and other normal grad student obstacles to research.

Year 3 I taught both semesters and also during the summer. In spring, I received a teaching award for my work as a graduate teaching assistant. This was a lovely honor.

My next upcoming hurdle is an oral exam called an OPO due this semester. Basically, I come up with a novel research idea and write a 2-3 year grant for it. It has to be in my field of chemistry (physical) but not within my graduate study topics (dimethylphosphate, DNA backbone, NMR, computational, and blue copper proteins). I then have to defend my grant in a 40 minute presentation to my advisory committee. It’s a scary prospect.

As a recitation TA for Chemistry 109, which is the first semester chemistry class at UNL (the general – not for nursing or honors or engineers etc), I attend the lecture and help do demonstrations with the lecturing professor. I may not have signed up to do a recitation this fall if I’d known one of the demos was this:

http://www-class.unl.edu/chem109/resources.htm

By the way, I am featured in the middle video.

Even though I made an entry about another hurdle passed, I thought I would do a quick update. I am now into year 3, and although I don’t feel like I have done as much research as I should have by this point, it is moving along.

I gave my third of four seminars and it went well. The talk was about 35 minutes when it was supposed to be 30; which was fine. I purposely was a little shallow in my information knowing a practice had gone 50 minutes. They asked questions for 10-15 minutes after my talk was over, which was really cool actually. I think I answered the questions well (except for the one, which I misunderstood, explained everything he did not want to know or perhaps already knew, and then answered when he reasked it - oops - although a labmate said “Nobody cares about that column” when i said something about being blind to the column in question.)

I am also teaching a recitation section for chem 109 again. It is going much better than this summer. Second time around and on the semester seems to be good. I had very favorable formative evaluations after a few weeks and every week I get an email from a student saying something positive about my teaching. Feels good!

And, my boss got a grant, so next semester I probably will not be teaching. I have mixed feelings for that, but we’ll see what happens.