Training for OSU employees will be offered from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, May 27, in the Oak Creek Building, room 201. This safety training is required for all OSU employees who are not lab employees but may need to enter a lab in the course of their work. Examples include trade workers, IT workers or administrative personnel. The course assists personnel to become familiar with lab hazards, lab warning signs and labels and general and specific protective measures. Refresher training is required every three years. Pre-registration is encouraged: submit name and OSU ID number to radiationsafety@oregonstate.edu.
Who Am I? Wednesday – Larry Nelson
Name: Larry Nelson
Area of Study / Position Title: development engineer / machinest
Why chemistry? (What about it initially interested you?):this is Chemistry?
Research focus (in non-science terms) or basic job duties? design and build custom parts from vacuum chamber systems to Batterys and everything in between, a wide variety of materials and projects.
One thing you truly love about your job? Helping my customers succeed with their projects and giving them what they didnt even know they needed yet.
One interesting/strange factoid about yourself. i grow Giant pumpkins for contests, personal best so far is 1468 lbs.
Printing High Quality Optics
VadientOptics, an MBI tenant company that fabricates freeform gradient index nanocomposite optical elements, will present “Printing High Quality Optics” on Friday, May 29 as part of MBI’s noon seminar series.
Printing High Quality Optics
Metolius Room, Microproducts Breakthrough Institute
1110 NE Circle Blvd. – HP Corvallis Campus
(Directions to MBI)
Abstract
VadientOptics, a Voxtel company, is doing research in Corvallis in lab and office space at the Microproducts Breakthrough Institute (MBI). We have developed materials and processes under DARPA and NASA research contracts to develop the volumetric index of refraction gradient optics (VIRGO) process, using nanoparticles in polymers to print optics. This has involved the development of materials, equipment, and algorithms that produce a final, useful product. We will give an overview of this research in this seminar.
Speakers
Four members of the Vadient team will speak:
Dr. Sang-Ki Park
Dr. Charles Dupuy
Dr. Ngoc Nguyen
Paul Harmon
See MBI’s Announcements for speaker bios.
Focus on ECampus – Kirk Denti
OSU online Chemistry’s student Kirk Denti is currently working as an RN in an ICU, but is working toward becoming a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA). Kirk tells us that our CH 140, General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry, will help him to meet the prerequisite requirements of CRNA school. Kirk shares his story below–
Please share your background so we can get to know you better—how did you end up where you are on this journey?
Long story, but I used to be a Respiratory Therapist up until 2 1/2 years ago. I have worked in Vancouver, Canada for about 5 years and about 12 years in Texas. I have always appreciated the role of the CRNA, as some of what they do, professionally, blends into what we did as RTs (airway and ventilator management). I left the bedside in 2007 and went to work for a disease management company, and it was there that a coworker had applied to RN school and got in. This inspired me to move forward and apply for RN school myself. My thoughts were simply that time is going to pass, so why not study while it happens and accomplish something at the same time. I started RN school in 2009 and finished in 2011 and have been working as an RN in an ICU for 2 1/2 years.
What inspired you to choose the career path you are working towards?
In my Respiratory Therapy program in Canada, we had to take an anesthesia class. Canada has an anesthesia profession, similar to CRNA, designed for RTs to go into, and this particular class gave me a taste of it. I really enjoyed it and really enjoyed my O.R. rotations. At the time, I wanted to be an RT, but that class held a spot in my mind. When I came to the States and learned about the CRNA profession and how much more involved it was than what was offered in Canada, I knew I had to pursue it. And besides, the pay is pretty good too!
How will your OSU online classes help you to accomplish your career goals?
Organic and Biochemistry are prerequisites for some CRNA programs (one or the other, not both) and this class, Chem 140, fits nicely into my plans. Without it, I would have to have taken one year of General Chemistry and then Organic Chemistry. With this class, I don’t have to do that, and I can do it from home…can’t beat that. (Be sure to check with any professional program you are targeting to be sure they will accept the class you plan to take).
Do you have any advice for other online students?
Be sure that you discipline yourself to stay focused and on target with study objectives and don’t fall behind. If you can get a study partner, that would help, so that you can push and support one another. It’s very easy to let a day here and there slide by without studying.
What is next for you?
My next step is to apply at a few CRNA programs around the nation and hope for the best. I don’t know where I will end up, but I don’t really mind as long as I get accepted somewhere.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I like being with my wife and kids–just hanging out with them. I also enjoy playing my acoustic guitar, which I find relaxing. I am married and have been for 25 years; we have 6 children, aged 15 to 23.
Undergraduate of the Quarter – Winter 2015 – Alec Kagele
Alec Kagele was born in Roseburg, Oregon and had never taken a Chemistry class until coming to OSU. He bounced around various Engineering and Science degrees before landing in his first Chemistry class and fell in love. Alec took General Chemistry from Margie Haak; long before she developed the flip classroom environment. He was not as enamored with Organic Chemistry until he took the final term of the sequence from Dr. Chris Beaudry.
This course led him to doing Undergraduate Research, also in Dr. Beaudry’s lab. He has been working there for nearly a year. In addition to his coursework and an additional part time job at Woodstock’s Pizza, he works in the Mole Hole, a tutoring center for General Chemistry students and TA’s for Paula Weiss who teaches the 12X level General Chemistry. Alec is an incredibly busy student.
While he’s still not completely set on his plans for the future, he’s leaning towards a Master’s degree and a job in industry. We’re proud to have students like Alec Kagele in the Department of Chemistry.
Oregon Science Startup Forum 2016
Hello!
My name is Jim Tung and I am the Chair-Elect of the Portland area’s section of the American Chemical Society, the professional society for chemists and chemistry.
I am working with Troy Wahl, the president of the Oregon City Applied Research Incubator, to bring the Oregon Science Startup Forum to Portland in the spring of 2016.
The forum will present what it takes to start a science company (even as a student!) and to apply your knowledge to create a new business.
Click to see the event’s flyer.
While both Troy and I are chemists, we are reaching out to other disciplines for their perspectives on how to start and run a science-oriented business.
Interested?
To help plan this event, we’d like your opinion on what you’d like to learn about, whom you’d like to hear from and how you’d like to participate. By taking this survey, you consent for us to use the information you provide.
Please forward to your faculty and students, and post the flyer.
Best wishes,
Jim Tung
2015 Chair-Elect, American Chemical Society, Portland local section
NSF Graduate Fellowship Info Session
The OSU Graduate School is hosting an Informational Session about the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) at OSU on May 12, 5-6:30 p.m., Linus Pauling Science Center Auditorium (LPSC 125). Seating is limited. Register Here. Click here for more information.
Who Am I? Wednesday – Claudia Maier
Name: Claudia S. Maier
Area of Study / Position Title: Chemistry, Professor
Why chemistry? (What about it initially interested you?): Chemistry is what makes life possible; every movement, every interaction and communication, every thought, every cure, every biomolecules comes down ultimately to atoms and bonds, i.e. chemistry.
Research focus (in non-science terms) or basic job duties? As a chemist I find it fascinating to reveal the molecular players – the critical biomolecules and the chemical signatures – that are associated with the response of a biological system to diverse stimuli, exposure, chronic diseases and aging. We use mass spectrometry, a very sensitive analytical technique, to detect and identify the players. Knowing the players will in turn open avenues for designing therapies and promoting health.
One thing you truly love about your job? Love the interaction with my students in the classroom and in the lab; there is nothing more rewarding if a student shows you what she/he developed or discovered and then starts to create her/his own story.
One interesting/strange factoid about yourself. Love the smell of horse poop
Celebrating Undergraduate Excellence (CUE) – Application Deadline Extended
OSU’s annual Celebrating Undergraduate Excellent event recognizing the outstanding contributions of OSU’s undergraduate researchers will be held on May 14 beginning at 11:00 in the new MU Plaza between the MU and the Student Experience Center. This event, which is open to students in all majors, provides students with an opportunity to present posters of their work to the OSU community and can be used to satisfy the public presentation requirement for Transcript Notation.
The deadline for applications for CUE has been extended to April 28 at 5:00 p.m. For more information, please see http://communications.oregonstate.edu/events/cue or send email to Kevin Ahern at ahernk@onid.orst.edu
Please note that all students nominated for Undergraduate Researcher of the Year are required to participate in CUE to be eligible for the award.
Who Am I? Wednesday – Mike Lerner
Name: Mike Lerner
Area of Study / Position Title: Inorganic/Materials Chemistry, Professor
Why chemistry? (What about it initially interested you?): It was some courses I took in my first year at college. Freshman majors didn’t take general chemistry, instead I had one term each of biochemistry and crystallography. I was fascinated and a bit mystified, and they got me hooked into chemistry.
Research focus (in non-science terms) or basic job duties? I’m looking into new intercalation chemistry reactions, and also at the preparation of new nanocomposites materials. These are interesting lately because they are the electrodes used in lithium-ion and related batteries.
One thing you truly love about your job? One thing I love is discussing results from ongoing research projects. Getting results from new experiments means finding out unknown things about nature, and it really feels like being an explorer.
One interesting/strange factoid about yourself. I worked for Stanley Kaplan (the man himself) for several years during college.