Women of STEM

Though I loved SPE I was ready for a change so badly. I needed a new routine, a new set of skills to learn, and a new room.

My work life had become a sort of Groundhog day, or I guess for chemists...Moleday!

Now when I go to work it feels like an advanced chem class in college. Organic Instrumentation is made up of 4 women and 1 male analyst. They have all been working this job for at least a decade and are masters at their skills. 

Kim, Dave, and myself are all new additions to instrumentation. We have GC (gas chromatography), LC (liquid chromatography), and GC-MS (Mass Spec) instruments that we're learning. Kim and I are learning GC-MS analysis with 2 of the women that have been here the longest.  These women have been running gas chromatography instruments and developing methods as the E.P.A. adds new tests throughout the years.

They've seen the transition from paper graphs and calculators to advanced technical instrumentation.

When I go to work it's like talking to professors. Sometimes it doesn't even feel like work, but growing and learning all day.

They are my science mentors, and I try to gain just some of their wisdom. I greatly admire these women of technology.

They are teaching me how to run high productivity organics analysis laboratory, and they are showing the world what smart and respectable women scientists look like.

They are determined, independent, self reliant, and ambitious. I am grateful to work with these amazing women and learn what I can from them.

I often think how hard was it for them to learn technology in a man's world in their day?

I can only hope that one day I can inspire the same respect as a woman of science one day in future generations.

Vegetable Egg Rolls Make Work Worth It

Some days I regret going to work, but not today!

I work with one of the sweetest ladies. She's from Burma, and if anyone is willing to listen, she will share interesting stories about her life growing up there.

She became friends with Jim from our lab, and now the whole lab is lucky because they get together and make egg rolls for everybody.

I was lucky enough to work with these 2 generous people and become friends with them over the years, but even luckier that they think of me when they make food!
Jim makes a special batch of egg rolls for me, the vegetarian, and they are delicious!

The lab had 3 vegetarians (myself included) out of about 75 people.
My vegetarian coworkers all left but were eventually replaced by new ones.
Now when we have events at work, someone always thinks of adding a vegetarian option, and I am so grateful.
We've also noticed many people that aren't vegetarians prefer that option, tossing meat aside for that one meal at least.

I'm not a nag or a mean vegan about other people's food choices. I (usually) quietly adhere to my own set of values. It is such a good feeling to share your values and perhaps change some minds just by being who you are.

525 Beyond the Horizon

525.2

Ah 525.2 : The bane of my work existence.

Solid Phase Extraction Horizon 4790 automated extraction system.

These extractors are the most technical equipment we have in the organics lab.

It was vastly different from anything else we worked with, which should have made it interesting.

However, these extractors never really worked well for me. For 5 years I worked on these instruments and it was always a good chance that the samples would flood, not extract correctly, or worst of all fail. We run controls with each batch of samples.  

The control samples and client samples are then transferred to analysts up front, and put on a GC/MS. We went through multiple periods when the tests would run smoothly, but the controls would fail, causing all the samples to be invalid.

We did test upon test, checking all aspects of this method.  We performed experiments with changing the amounts of sulfate, drying times, and amounts of chemicals applied. Nothing ever seemed conclusive.

It was like the extractors had their own personality...and it clashed with mine!

Some of our new people couldn't pass the quality control tests for this method, so even after we hired new people for SPE I was still stuck with this method I hated.

I began to despise the word 525.

I finally moved up front after 5 long years with these extractors and started training in instrumentation.

I still couldn't get away from this method for months.

Finally somebody did pass the 

525 test and I was out of the organics room for good!

It was one of the most relieving moments of my work life.

I had visions of one day getting new equipment and smashing these extractors into tiny bits of plastic and metal like an office space moment.

The extractors never did work quite right all the time for my predecessor either.  We still haven't replaced the extractors...or splattered them into pieces.

I did however pass on the fun, and the art and drawings will continue on these hoods!

 Here's to 5 years of great doodles with my nerdy cool science friends. 

On the worst days in the organics room (which usually involve this method) may the hood art live on!

"Teachin the new kids how it's done."~Jim

Instrumentation

I don't like the lab anymore. It's cold down here, dark, and it smells funny.

I was troubleshooting method 525.2 problems when I came across this note on an online forum. We thought it was so true and hilarious that we wrote it down and stuck the note on our bosses' desk after work.

That's pretty much what a day in our lab felt like a lot of the time. 

A glorious place exists where Keurigs brew delicious cups of coffee and you don't have to smell rotten meat while you drink it.

Our lab is shaped like a long rectangle with the back half being the dirty lab portion...but the front half...oh, the front half.

The presentation and show happens in the front half. The bathrooms are nicer and the water is warm when you wash your hands.

Best of all ethyl acetate is nothing more than a hazy dream.

The visitor and big wig entrance is up front, so the parking spots are closer and level.

After a cold fall Midwest rain if you're lucky you park up front, and don't drown in potholes swimming to your car after work like the rest of us.
For 5 years I looked at the front half of the lab with envy.

I've been promoted and moved onto this magical land of work they call Instrumentation!

My lab is at the very front of the building now!

I specifically am running GC/MS instruments. I analytically test the samples I used to extract and prepare. Basically I get to see the final results of the water samples that come in.

BEST OF ALL I HAVE MY OWN DESK!

I've been working since before I could legally work and...

IVE NEVER HAD MY OWN DESK!

Toad Island

Toad Island is a beach on my favorite river that has become a tradition on our kayaking adventures.

It is my idea of heaven on Earth.

It's sandy and rocky with access to a perfect swimming spot.

In the spring and summer wildflowers bloom along the edges of riverbanks. The sands turn to rock and dirt leading into the shady canopy of woods.

Pollinators, amphibians, birds, and mammals alike forage these banks and enjoy it's waters.

 Once a year during early summer, if we're lucky, we come across frogs and toads of all shapes and sizes. Not only that, but Toad Island has hidden treasures of geode rocks if you look hard enough.

Toad Island with Toad Eggs

Toad eggs, unlike frog eggs, are found in long strands that are clear with black bead like eggs.

Check out the good vibrations this tiny toad is putting out.
Respect the Water and maybe you can catch some good vibrations too.

Here are some of my favorite photos on the Mackinaw River, along with some of the friends we found along the way.

Action shot of dragonfly and snake

Canoe Dogs

Goose nest

Softshell Tortoise

Luna like a cat in water

 

Drinking waters are contaminated with organic compounds from popular herbicides and pesticides. Our lab reports hits for herbicide analytes such as atrazine, simazine, and metolachlor often.

What do you suppose would be found in waste waters, farm creek run-off, and industrial rivers?

 
He says it so much better than me I'll leave these John Prine lyrics as a lasting note.
 Hopefully you can find a river to love and cherish as much as I do.

John Prine: Paradise
When I was a child my family would travel
Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born
And there's a backwards old town that's often remembered
So many times that my memories are worn.

And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

Well, sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River
To the abandoned old prison down by Airdrie Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.

Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.

When I die let my ashes float down the Green River
Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam
I'll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waitin'
Just five miles away from wherever I am.