First Conference!

[metherion]

As some of you may know, I'm a graduate student in chemistry, and I just had my first opportunity to go to a regional American Chemical Society conference meeting and present the 4 months of data I've gotten for my thesis on a poster.

I also got to go to about 5 talks, very interesting, and see well over a hundred other posters, and had a lot of fun.

I just wanted to share that, and if folks want to know what talks I listened to, or what my poster was on, or anything, feel free to ask.

But it was a simultaneously nerve-wracking and exhilarating experience, my first time going to a conference and presenting something.

Metherion

 

[Orogeny]

Congrats on your poster presentation. I presented a poster at the American Association of Petroleum Geologists convention in Houston this year. It's definitely nice to have some input from the larger community and to see all the interesting research people are doing.

I'd love to hear a bit about your project.

 

[Geologist]

Congrats. Even after doing conferences for more than 20 years I still get a little nervous about giving a talk or presenting a poster.

 

[Blayz]

Wait until you give a keynote.

 

[metherion]

Thanks for all your congrats!

My project is tailoring montmorillite clays with a specific enantiomer of an amino acid to give it chiral selectivity when filtering racemic mixtures of other amino acids through the clays. Right now I'm doing the qualitative "Yes, the clay with l-(amino acid) [because l is cheaper than d by a LOT] DOES filter out one enantiomer, and we can tell which one by this polarimetry" step, later I'm going to get to the 'how efficient is it' question and the 'can the amino acid that was trapped in the clay be recovered' question.

Metherion

 

[AV1611VET]

Okay if I derail this thread by pointing out what happens when I toot my own horn?

If not, I'll just delete it from my subscription list.

 

[Jazer]

Okay if I derail this thread by pointing out what happens when I toot my own horn?

I don't know if you can toot your horn unless they were to actually pay you to go to one of those things to give a presentation. Usually your research and knowledge in your field has to be pretty advanced for that.

 

[AV1611VET]

I don't know if you can toot your horn unless they were to actually pay you to go to one of those things to give a presentation.

They would probably ask me nicely to vacate the premises.

Unless of course, this was 1995, and I was Bob Larson at a certain college university; then I would have to end being escorted out by body guards in fear of my own life, while educatees stormed the stage and proceed to dismantle it.

 

[Lion Hearted Man]

Congrats man! I presented a poster at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology one year and it was awesome. There's something about the atmosphere of a scientific conference that is energizing, and makes you feel part of something very big. Did you feel the same way?

What were some of the cooler talks you went to? Were there any big questions that sparked debate?

 

[Split Rock]

Okay if I derail this thread by pointing out what happens when I toot my own horn?

If not, I'll just delete it from my subscription list.

Well lets see...

They would probably ask me nicely to vacate the premises.

Unless of course, this was 1995, and I was Bob Larson at a certain college university; then I would have to end being escorted out by body guards in fear of my own life, while educatees stormed the stage and proceed to dismantle it.

Yeah, you should probably delete it from your list. Then you can start a "Bob Larson" fanclub.

 

[Split Rock]

As some of you may know, I'm a graduate student in chemistry, and I just had my first opportunity to go to a regional American Chemical Society conference meeting and present the 4 months of data I've gotten for my thesis on a poster.

I also got to go to about 5 talks, very interesting, and see well over a hundred other posters, and had a lot of fun.

I just wanted to share that, and if folks want to know what talks I listened to, or what my poster was on, or anything, feel free to ask.

But it was a simultaneously nerve-wracking and exhilarating experience, my first time going to a conference and presenting something.

Metherion

Congrats. Maybe next time you can give a talk. Its more nerve-wracking than a poster, but its over quicker.

 

[Jazer]

They would probably ask me nicely to vacate the premises.

Unless of course, this was 1995, and I was Bob Larson at a certain college university; then I would have to end being escorted out by body guards in fear of my own life, while educatees stormed the stage and proceed to dismantle it.

Sounds like a Justin Beaver Concert. They have to escort him to his limo as soon as the show is over because he stirs the teenage girls up so much.

 

[metherion]

Okay if I derail this thread by pointing out what happens when I toot my own horn?

Ah, go ahead, just kindly limit it to the one post, if ya don’t mind? I didn’t think I was tooting my own horn here, though, I was just trying to share how excited I was.

Congrats man! I presented a poster at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology one year and it was awesome. There's something about the atmosphere of a scientific conference that is energizing, and makes you feel part of something very big. Did you feel the same way?

Yes! That was exactly how I felt! It was, like... in this building and in these rooms is sooo much knowledge and experience and potential for finding out so much humanity as a whole doesn’t know yet... and I AM CONTRIBUTING TO IT!

What were some of the cooler talks you went to? Were there any big questions that sparked debate?

There weren’t very many questions in any of the talks I went to. I went to one from another grad student I work with about how much better differential scanning calorimetry is for forming binary phase diagrams over regular methods, two talks about diffusion versus bulk mass flow in evaporation of heavier-than-air liquids, and one talk about important features of data management plans with examples from real world situations the lady had been involved with in her industrial hygiene job, and one other I can’t remember off the top of my head.

Congrats. Maybe next time you can give a talk. Its more nerve-wracking than a poster, but its over quicker. 

Yeah, the talks were 20-30 minutes, whereas my poster was up from 7:15 am to 1:10 pm (though I was only required to be right next to it for one hour, noon to 1, I stayed near it between talks I wanted to go to.)

Ideally, next time I go I WILL give a talk. My professor wants me to present the results of my graduate research as a talk at the next conference we get to go to. I figure if I can give a 20 minute talk to and handle questions from any chemist from Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, or Arkansas who wants to come listen... then I’ll be in good shape for my thesis defense.

Metherion

 

[Nabobalis]

Congratulations! Sounds like fun. I will have my own to worry about come April.

 

[Naraoia]

As some of you may know, I'm a graduate student in chemistry, and I just had my first opportunity to go to a regional American Chemical Society conference meeting and present the 4 months of data I've gotten for my thesis on a poster.

I also got to go to about 5 talks, very interesting, and see well over a hundred other posters, and had a lot of fun.

I just wanted to share that, and if folks want to know what talks I listened to, or what my poster was on, or anything, feel free to ask.

But it was a simultaneously nerve-wracking and exhilarating experience, my first time going to a conference and presenting something.

Metherion

Woot!

That's something I'm not looking forward to. Doing a poster for our in-house postgrad conference was bad enough, I'll have a nervous breakdown when I have to do it for a crowd of strangers. :o I love going to conferences, but I prefer being on the receiving end of the knowledge dump

Thanks for all your congrats!

My project is tailoring montmorillite clays with a specific enantiomer of an amino acid to give it chiral selectivity when filtering racemic mixtures of other amino acids through the clays. Right now I'm doing the qualitative "Yes, the clay with l-(amino acid) [because l is cheaper than d by a LOT] DOES filter out one enantiomer, and we can tell which one by this polarimetry" step, later I'm going to get to the 'how efficient is it' question and the 'can the amino acid that was trapped in the clay be recovered' question.

Metherion

Hehe, "montmorillonite" and "chiral selectivity" make me think abiogenesis. Probably one of the few ways you can get me excited about chemistry!

 

[metherion]

Hehe, "montmorillonite" and "chiral selectivity" make me think abiogenesis. Probably one of the few ways you can get me excited about chemistry!

This is actually what a few people thought it was about! But, it's a bit more practical. I'm looking to make it less expensive to separate racemic mixtures, as the two main methods I'm aware of to separate them with something RESEMBLING efficiency are capillary electrophoresis and complicated enantiospecific syntheses. But those are slower, more resource intensive, and therefore quite expensive. So, why not see if the cost can be lowered with something relatively cheap like clay? That's what my research is more geared towards... but I can't deny it does have some neat ideas that could be useful in studying abiogenesis.

Metherion

 

[fenix144]

Very nice man. btw your pic is pretty awesome ^_-

 

[Orogeny]

That's something I'm not looking forward to. Doing a poster for our in-house postgrad conference was bad enough, I'll have a nervous breakdown when I have to do it for a crowd of strangers. :o I love going to conferences, but I prefer being on the receiving end of the knowledge dump

No way! Conferences are definitely stressful, but they allow for the broadest range of criticism, which (for me at least) is a catalyst for creativity. My work has grown most just before and just after conferences and colloquia. Public scrutiny is AWESOME!

 

[TemperateSeaIsland]

Some questions...

1) What kind of ee are you getting?
2) Have you tried it with other chiral molecules?
3) What was the food like?

Congrats! Haven't been to a conference in years.

 

[metherion]

1) I'm not sure, I haven't come to that point in my data analysis yet. Right now I'm just doing the qualitative part. But once I get to that point, I'll let you know if I remember.

2) Nope, so far just 3 racemic mixtures: lysine, asparagine, and carnitine.

3) I didn't get much food at the conference. It was in Austin, so I went out. I did have some really good food though, I got to go to a persian place and to P.F. Chang's, which are both delicious... and it was held at a Doubletree so I got some of those cookies.

Metherion