Because I have recently focused on preparing for the research symposium this Friday, I have not done much lab work. This week, however, my mentor has begun planning for her next set of experiments as the school year approaches. Right now, she is investigating the kinetic adsorption of granular activated carbon (GAC) and zeolites. To do this, we are shaking our contaminated materials for differing amounts of time and running them through the HPLC or LC-MS to quantify the amount of PFAS adsorption. The purpose of these experiments is to compare the rates of adsorption between GAC and the zeolites. This is a factor that was not included in my experiments.

Before creating about 70 samples to analyze, I was takes to create two viles of contaminated GAC. One would be shaken for one minute and then other would be shaken for five minutes. The GAC samples had positive results, so we went ahead and prepared the viles for the contaminated samples of GAC and modified zeolites.

These experiments are time sensitive and something I have not done before, so it was fun change of pace. I will unfortunately no longer be an intern at Rice University to see the results, but I am glad to be of helpful use until the very end.

I have dedicated the past couple of weeks to preparation for the research symposium. This week has been more about practicing our deliveries. I prepared a one-minute elevator pitch and received feedback on what I could say to improve it. I have also practiced a slightly longer pitch on my own and will share it with my mentor and another graduate student for them to advise me on what I can improve. Furthermore, I have picked up physical poster for Friday, and I am really proud of how it came out. Comparing the poster, I did at my community college to the one I made during this internship truly shows the different ways I have grown as a researcher.

Overall, this week has been very bittersweet for me. I’m very happy to have been able to participate in an REU that closely relates to my interests, but I am a little sad that it is ending. I’ve met new faces throughout my short time here and learned many things about myself as a learner and as a person. As an undergraduate student highly interested in research, I aim to continue to utilize all the knowledge regarding research and graduate school in education for years to come.

Last week, I mainly worked on my abstract and the draft of my poster for the upcoming symposium. I still feel that I have developed a strong abstract and enhanced my writing abilities coming from a recent high school and community college graduate. I have now received feedback on the first draft of my poster and I now see things that could be changed that I didn’t notice before. Even before our feedback session in our Tuesday meeting, I realized how important receiving feedback from peers is. Having people who think in vastly different manners can provide insights into things you may have never realized. Every time I get feedback on things, whether that may be writing, a poster, or a presentation, I notice just how much things changed compared to what they originally were. I am very glad that we were able to give feedback in a large group.

As I previously mentioned with feedback, my poster has already changed so much and I expect it to continue to change a small amount as I work on it over the weekend. From formatting to adding additional text or visuals, it has already begun to take somewhat of a different form, and I am eager to see its final version. Additionally, I have come to realize that I need to make sure I am completely knowledgeable about the information I will present on my poster because there are small details and numbers that I cannot remember off the top of my head. Similarly, I need to make sure I have one-, three-, and five-minute pitches for my poster.

Aside from working on my poster this week, I was able to attend a resume workshop, which was very insightful. Again, learning things from different people provides vast amounts of perspectives which is something I truly love to see. I was able to implement some suggestions into my resume and fix a lot of formatting issues in my resume. A big thing I struggled with before and something I still continue to struggle with is shortening my resume to one page. I managed to get it to a little over one page but still not what I would like it to be. Now that I’m thinking of it, maybe having someone look it over for me can provide me some insight on what to potentially remove and, ultimately, shorten it.

As things are coming to an end, I am able to reflect on the various things I did and learned throughout my summer internship. Similar to how I feel when I see the changes in my writing, poster, etc. after receiving feedback, I get the same feeling of satisfaction when I complete a task that allows me to evolve as a student and as an individual. I am happy to say that I am already feeling a sense of that fulfillment.

Like the previous week, most of my work did not take place in the lab. We prepared and ran the last samples on the TGMS and obtained the last piece of data I will need for my poster. I only had six samples to prepare, and the process did not deviate from previous lab procedures, so it was fairly simple. Unfortunately, starting a few weeks ago, an issue that we have encountered is that we are running out of zeolite samples. Because there is a limited amount of time before the poster is due, we decided it would not be ideal to create new samples from scratch since it is very time-consuming. For that reason, tried our best to scrape out all of the samples from their capsules. Fortunately, my samples ran smoothly and I now possess the plotted data on charts. I still need to further analyze the significance of the data to then determine what is most interesting and impactful to include in my poster.

Additionally, I learned a lot about research posters this week. I went to a research poster workshop and learned many valuable tips to consider when creating the presentation. Having some previous knowledge from the Honors College at Lone Star College, some of the information given throughout the workshop was familiar. However, because I mainly have a background in slide presentations, it was very beneficial for me to learn poster-making skills from an expert. I learned that the poster has to tell a story that attracts people passing by while also maintaining an easily digestible presentation, both visually and informationally. Color schemes and design styles can make the presentation appealing, but the choice must be meaningful. There are also traditional formats that one can follow when making a poster presentation: three vertical columns. However, there are stylistic changes that can be made that can actually enhance the presentation and better fit the figures one is trying to display.

Once I met with my mentor after my morning meetings, she took my fellow intern and me around our cubicle area to look at the various graduate posters on the wall. Most of the posters were in different disciplines, but they provided me with even more inspiration on how I could format my poster.

Another aspect of my project that I have been working on is my abstract. Like poster-making, I have previous experience in writing abstracts. However, it was primarily over literature-based research. The format of my abstract completely changed over time as I got feedback from others and I am proud to have submitted its finalized version. As many others would say, the hardest part about writing an abstract is condensing everything you did and learned into a brief paragraph. There is so much information that is valuable but exceeds the character limit. I believe writing this abstract allowed me to further develop my writing skills since I had to figure out ways to rewrite and condense sentences that are very information-heavy.

Lastly, this week was the last week for the teacher working in the same lab as me. Alongside my mentor and another graduate student, we attended the first poster session of the teacher symposium. It was a little bittersweet to say goodbye, but it was exciting to have weeks of lab work come to full fruition for everyone to see. I am excited to see my poster come to life in about a week.

Our Fourth of July break became a longer break due to Hurricane Berryl passing through Houston. I knew there would potentially be a power outage so I tried to get some at least started so I wouldn’t fall too behind. As expected, I woke up with the power gone out, but we were fortunate enough to get the power back in about a day. Once I got my power back I was able to continue to edit my abstract rough draft and submit it.

Now that we are able to come back on campus and continue in-person work, I am getting back into the routine of working in the lab and the office. Nonetheless, this week has been slower. I mainly did computer work and preparation for my poster presentation. I also went to the BRC to collect some data that was run the previous day. Additionally, we were able to use the TG-MS on Wednesday and get some data on the catalytic aspect of our samples. Because most of the data we have been obtaining has been through the HPLC and the LC-MS, I am still trying to get a better understanding of the TG-MS. However, with a little more studying and explanation from my mentor on how to analyze the data, I will become more comfortable. My mentor, peers, and I are still trying to make sense of the data that was obtained, but I am already envisioning how I can format my poster presentation. 

On Wednesday, I attended an REU dinner event discussing graduate school. Since I am highly interested in pursuing a PhD, I thought it would be very beneficial for me to attend. Even though I have about two years before I need to apply to graduate programs, I learned various methods of engaging in undergraduate research to make myself a valuable candidate for graduate programs. Additionally, engaging in more undergraduate research will allow me to explore my interests and see what kind of program I would best fit in. I want to have complete confidence in myself that graduate school is something I want to do and will be beneficial to my future because it is a long-term commitment with its many pros and cons. 

This was a short but eventful week. We finished contaminating our last batch of samples with PFBA and prepared some diluted samples with PFOA and PFBA. Because we are preparing samples in bulk, it can feel a little overwhelming and tiring sometimes. Nonetheless, all the work to prepare the samples is worth the end result and seeing and comparing how effective they were at adsorbing the various PFAS compounds. can get quite confusing, so it is especially important to go slow and double-check as you go. Since last week, we have been preparing samples to be run in the LC-MS. However, this week, we have also started preparing samples to be run in the TG-MS. I have yet to see this machine, but its purpose is to determine if the copper or iron ion exchange on the zeolites has produced a catalytic effect.

I also got to use the XPS on three zeolite samples and two granulated activated carbon (GAC) samples.

Being back in that room brought me back to the second day of my internship. It made me realize how far I have gotten in my project and just how much time flies. The first time I saw the XPS, I sat with my mentor for her training. I was overwhelmed, but I tried my best to follow along. Although I am not knowledgeable on how to use the machine, I better understood why we were using this machine as part of my research project. Now that I am well-versed in my research project, understanding the once-intimidating machines has gotten much easier.

My internship has slowly taken a turn. I used to be in the office area reading for about 70% of the time and now I am in the lab 90% of the day. In these past couple of weeks, I feel that I learned and gained many valuable lab skills. I may not be doing very complex tasks in the lab, but I am now performing tasks with much more advanced equipment. Additionally, I feel like the experiments I am performing have an actual purpose, which is to ultimately become something that can be used in the real world. I have come to understand and get first-hand experience on how valuable lab work is and how it contributes to innovation. I have also learned so much about environmental engineering, which is something I have not considered studying before starting this internship. I’ve come to realize that my passions partly reside in the field of environmental engineering, and I am considering pursuing PhD in that same field or something very similar.

The beginning of this week was a continuation of last week’s extensive sample preparation. This time, however, we would not be creating more samples but testing their PFOS and PFBA adsorption. Because PFOS and PFBA are kinds of PFAS that cannot be detected through the HPLC sensor, the PDA, we had to use the LC-MS, which is located in the BRC. The LC-MS is actually the standard method of testing for PFAS adsorption. However, due to the distance of the LC-MS and the convenience of the HPLC being in the lab we currently work in, it was decided that PFOA could be tested on the HPLC.

 We decided to walk to the BRC, which allowed me to see parts of the campus I did not know of. It was extremely hot, but it was nice to get a change of scenery. Once we got there and took a lot at the LC-MS, I noticed that it was very similar to the HPLC.

It similarly had different liquid phases, which were in places on top of one part of the machine and had the same overall setup of where vials would be placed and eventually extracted from. The biggest difference in the LC-MS was that it had a separate machine. This is due to the fact that the method of detecting samples involves mass spectrometry. Consequently, this allows for precise data without any complications like the HPLC may present. 

I also got to attend a group meeting with my PI. In group meetings, there will always be a person presenting research followed by questions from the audience. It was interesting to hear about someone’s research that is vastly different from mine. Because it was something I was unfamiliar with and had a lot to do with complex DNA engineering, it was quite hard to follow, but I tried my best to comprehend the information to the best of my abilities.

Overall, I am completing lab work on my own now. Every day, I am tasked with contaminating the various samples I have created in the past few weeks and preparing them in vials to be tested in either the HPLC or the LC-MS. Even when small adjustments are made to the experimental procedure, I am able to complete them on my own, which is an accomplishment I was immensely looking forward to this summer. Now that I have gotten a grasp of the concepts of the purpose of the project, my current challenge changes every day. One day I am confused about how many samples I need to create, and which ones would go through the LC-MS or the HPLC and the next day I may be struggling with the process and math behind dilutions. Fortunately, I feel comfortable enough to speak up when I need help understanding something and my mentor and other graduate students always offer to explain the steps further.

In my short time here, I have learned quite a few things about my preferences in learning and habits that can promote productivity. I’ve learned that I feel more motivated and productive to get work done in the morning. This also led to my discovery of preferring to complete lab work first and computer work second. Because lab work can be very long, tedious, and a place of learning, I find that it is best to complete lab tasks before my energy depletes throughout the progression of the day. Furthermore, although computer work requires focus and motivation, I like to end my days on the computer because it allows me to let go of the intense focus I have in the lab. Additionally, I like to plan for what I am expected to do tomorrow at the end of each day. Our research requires an immense number of samples therefore planning for days in advance is necessary to be on schedule.

This week has encompassed everything I have learned and done in the lab since the beginning of this REU. I was in the lab for most of the week, and it was primarily individual work. Before this week started, my mentor and I devised a plan for all the different things that needed to be completed and on what day. I knew that this would be a very busy week so I mentally prepared myself for the amount of patience I would need in the lab. 

On Monday, I truly worked on my own to complete part of our lab procedure. I felt very accomplished and confident to be able to complete such tasks on my own. After obtaining my calcinated samples from a different lab in the same building, I weighed out the samples, placed them in the labeled centrifuge tubes, added the 10 mL to the centrifuge tubes, placed the remaining samples in their respective capsules, para-filmed every capsule and centrifuge tube, and placed the centrifuge tubes on the shaker to shake overnight. I remember his procedure was very overwhelming for me when I first started. However, I feel I have gained more confidence in myself as a scientist in the lab. I also feel happy that I am at a point where I am completely understanding the procedure of our experiments and the purpose for them as well.

Monday, however, was only the beginning of the many things that needed to get done that week. I am usually in the lab for only a couple hours but Thursday required me to be in the lab all day long. For that reason, Thursday was the most demanding day of the week. We had to prepare two PFAS stock solutions, PFOS and PFBA, and create the various samples that needed to be contaminated by the end of the day. Because another intern was working on a similar project, we had different tasks to complete, which meant that we could not collaborate on tasks like we usually do. We each had about 20 samples to create and contaminate. After labeling each centrifuge tube, I had to weigh out each of the samples that needed to be created, which was the longest part of the procedure. I always add slightly too much or take too much, which leaves me in a long repetitive cycle. The rest of the work was not as time-consuming but because we were preparing so many samples, completing our procedure was inherently going to take much longer.

My patience and particularness were really put to the test this week. However, I am excited to be at a point where I can complete parts of our experiment in bulk. As I previously mentioned, who I was at the beginning of this REU and who I am now are vastly different people regarding knowledge, experience, and comfortability. I remember only wanting to shadow my mentor for fear of messing samples up or damaging equipment. However, after coming to an adequate comprehension of the project and our procedure, I have been able to overcome those feelings of uneasiness.

As time progresses, I am becoming more familiar with the procedure of our experiments in the lab. In the past couple of weeks, I was focused on simply understanding the big picture of our project and getting a basic understanding of the various steps in our lab experiment. Now I am at a point where I am getting a deeper understanding of why we are doing specific steps and why it is done in a specific order. A lot of it is thanks to my mentor, who plays an important part in making sure I am understanding. I realized the best method for me to comprehend and retain information is to explain the general idea and work towards explaining the finer details. Additionally, visual aids and repeating what I learned throughout the day enhance my learning experience. I am also having the chance to experience some freedom in the lab. We are at a point where multitasking is a necessity. Since I have been shadowing my mentor for the past couple of weeks, I am familiar with what and how things need to get done. It was a little nerve-wracking at first since I really didn’t want to mess anything up, but I was able to gain confidence in myself. The experiments we perform are not high-risk. However, there are mistakes that can occur, which can lead to errors and potentially skewing results. 

On Wednesday, alongside another intern, I performed part of the ion-exchange procedure on the zeolite. 

Again, not very risky but more of making sure you are being precise and not doing anything to cross-contaminate or experience any major mass loss when transferring samples. On that day, I also got to experience how busy a lab can get. More graduate students and interns were working on their separate experiments than usual. However, in times when it could get cramped, all we needed to do was communicate and be understanding of other people’s space and time.

On Thursday I got to continue performing lab work on my own. This time, I and another intern worked on transferring the copper and iron zeolite solutions into centrifuge tubes and centrifuged them for a couple of minutes. Having done this before, the use of iron and different zeolites led to a different result from what we previously got. We then decanted the liquid in the centrifuge tubes and placed the tubes in the furnace to dry overnight. Like the previous day, there were others working in the lab so we had a chance to practice our collaboration and communication skills with others again. 

Overall, I was given the confidence and trust to be able to work on parts of the lab procedure on my own. I would consider this to be a valuable stepping stone in my REU as it provides me with self-confidence in my ability to successfully and carefully work in the lab as a person transitioning out of community college. Additionally, since the beginning of my REU, I have been working on my communication and collaborative skills in a lab setting, which is something I have minimal experience with.

Today is the last day of the second week of my internship at the Climate and Sustainability REU. Compared to last week, I had more of a hands-on experience in the lab this week. I worked with PFOA for the first time. I am not sure what I was expecting it to look like, especially since I was mainly reading about how harmful it can be, but it was just a white powdery substance. I would have never guessed it could have been such a toxic substance. At this point, I measured the desired mass of PFOA and then contaminated our two zeolite samples. After weighing substances like zeolites, copper, and PFOA, I found that the weighing portion of experiments was very time-consuming. This thought brought me back to how my mentor said the bulk of experiments is usually the weighing portion.

Aside from lab work, since my PI’s lab is in the process of moving into the new O’Connor building, I had the chance to look at the academic journals in my PI’s old office. There were various journals to look over, but out of the few I looked at, I found a few journals I wanted to take home. I also thought of my dad when looking at these journals since he loves to learn.  Journals like these are difficult to get access to, so I made sure to get at least one my dad would like. Furthermore, I surprisingly found a journal that had an article on a similar research project I did at my community college. It was over how certain chemical filters in sunscreens impact the environment, specifically coral reefs, and how their exposure can potentially impact human health. Despite them being in my possession, I have yet to read any of the journals but I am looking forward to reading about a wide arrangement of topics and learning new things.

Toward the end of the week, we continued to do more lab work, and my chemistry skills were put to work. It was mainly conversions of units to adjust to the units the automatic pipettes. I also learned the math behind a calibration curve, which is still something I am trying to wrap my head around, however, I am slowly coming to a general understanding of calibration curves and their purpose in the High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Additionally, I learned how to use syringes so we can filter our zeolites from the solution substances. We attached the syringes to small disposable filters, and it was quite difficult to work with them. The part I struggled with the most was pulling up part of the syringe that allowed for the liquid to enter. Additionally, having to continuously move the syringe down as the liquid went down was also challenging because the solution could overflow.

We finished the experiment, and although we were hoping there would be an observable difference in the absorbance in both the calcinated ion-exchanged zeolite and the non-calcinated ion-exchanged zeolite, no difference was observed using the HPLC. We did not view this as a setback, but rather a learning experience. It wasn’t that the experiment failed but rather the calcination did not work. Because the previous absorbance of the contaminated zeolites did not have a difference at the calcinated temperature, we went back to the baseline. Previous research established that beta zeolite can adsorb some of PFAS without any treatment while gamma zeolite cannot unless it is treated. In this case, the treatment is calcination and/or ion exchange. To make sure our samples confirm this idea, we have created six samples of PFAS-contaminated gamma zeolite samples and one PFAS-contaminated beta zeolite sample. The beta zeolite sample did not go through a transition-metal ion exchange, two of the gamma zeolite samples were only ion-exchanged, two gamma zeolites were calcinated at differing temperatures, and the last one was pure gamma zeolite. These samples were shaken overnight and went through the HPLC to observe the concentrations of PFAS and confirm what we already know.

After running our six samples through the HPLC, we determined a plan to follow in the following week. I am still striving to improve my abilities in analyzing data and deciphering what that means to adjust future steps. Overall, I feel like I have gotten a good grasp of what qualities make a responsible and diligent scientific researcher.

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.