This week marks my first week as a Climate and Sustainability REU student. It has been a very exciting week, to say the least. The first part of the week was a little slower since it was mainly introductions and presentations on safety. Although that part of the week was long-lasting, it was exciting to meet new people and learn about what I should expect out of my internship this summer. Regarding the safety trainings, I will say that they are not completely unfamiliar to me. However, it went into much more depth compared to what you learn in community college. It makes sense especially since community colleges usually do not have the resources to habit such large and expensive equipment. Aside from the general lab safety training, the biohazard portion of the safety training opened my eyes to how dangerous working with such materials and lab equipment can be. Luckily, I don’t have to worry too much about that for my project since I am focusing on the removal and destruction of PFAS, a chemical, from water.

Furthermore, I have met my mentor, Sara Denison, and she has made adjusting to the project a very smooth and reassuring process. On Wednesday, when I first met her, I got to join her in training for the NEXSA XPS. This was the first machine I was introduced to this week and it was nothing like any type of lab equipment I have seen before. Because the training entailed of terms and concepts I was yet familiar to, I just listened and absorbed the information to the best of my abilities. From what I understood, that machine essentially analyzes the surface of materials to determine their elemental composition as well as the chemical and electronic state of the atoms within a material. The method of simply absorbing information and shadowing my mentor is what I’ve been relying for this week. I am hoping it will allow me to get more comfortable with the material as well as the lab work that I will be starting next week. I plan to become more familiar with essential concepts to my project to develop a solid foundation, so I can then attempt learning such concepts in depth.

Additionally, yesterday, Thursday, I saw many more advanced machines and lab facilities. I went to the second lab my mentor had been assigned and was given a tour. I even had the chance to see her run some experiments on three mixed bentonite and pyrene samples. Again, I took the back seat role of just shadowing her and attempting to grasp all the information being presented to me. To get to that building, we passed a stairwell that led underground. Out of curiosity, I asked where it led to. I learned it was another lab and Sara decided to give me a little tour of the facility. This lab was the most unique one I have seen so far. Almost everything inside was white with large machines, tubes, and wires inside an enclosed room. This was called the clean room and it mainly works with nanomaterials.

Overall, coming from a background with minimal information on complex subjects like environmental engineering, I found it very overwhelming at first and questioned how I would be able to grasp such concepts without any prior education on topics such as those. However, as I previously mentioned, my introduction to the project was very straightforward and simple. I am very motivated to do well throughout this internship and I hope to continue learning and further developing my skills in research.