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Consejos: Advice from a Chemist

8/31/2020

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Where could I make the biggest impact if I want to become a professor and promote URMs in STEM?  Regardless of whether you go into academia or industry, there are different ways that you can promote other Latinas.  Mentoring is very important- share your experience with others and mentor others that are interested in STEM.  Be involved with organizations at your university/company that work to lift up underrepresented groups- these are great avenues to work with students and colleagues and share your experiences.  Talk to others not only about your success, but about your struggles.  I also think it is important to share any resources you may have- if you are working in academia look for opportunities to help underrepresented students to find internships or research opportunities.   When I was an undergraduate, I didn’t know that I needed to be doing research or that there were programs to pay for my GRE’s until I spoke to a teaching assistant and they shared their resources with me. 

Which careers can I pursue with a degree in chemistry?  Most people think a degree in chemistry means you are in a lab wearing a lab coat, but there are so many options.  A degree in chemistry means you can: teach, do research at national labs, develop new materials for food packaging, develop new cosmetic formulations, or work in a forensics lab.  You can also work to examine minerals and rocks, work for oil companies, or work for automobile companies and tech companies.  Chemists are needed on every aspect of our lives- from new materials to final products.  We have a blog post that highlights this a bit more, check it out!

 Do you enjoy what you do? Why?  I love what I do.  My job gives me a variety of projects to work on.  I work as an analytical chemist for a materials company and therefore I get to work on everything from raw materials to final products (things we use in everyday life).  This makes my day-to-day responsibilities and job interesting, as every day there is a new problem to solve.  I have the ability to work on customer issues, long term R&D projects, and to innovate. 

 Have you had a manager who was not a chemist? What did they do well? What could they have done better? No, however I have had managers that do not have a background in the techniques and chemistry that I work on.  I used it as an opportunity to share with them the techniques and as an opportunity for me to discuss why my projects and techniques were important.  At first they didn’t understand all aspects of my job, but they were open to learning and always asked questions, which made for good conversations.  I think it is important to remember (not only for managers), that we need to be open to learning.  It doesn’t matter if it’s been 20 years or 1 year in a company/group, you can always learn something.  My manager was open to learning from me and that made for a good work environment. 

How did you choose your career?  After my first year of graduate school, I knew I wanted to go into industry- I loved being in the lab making new compounds and analyzing them.   As I was wrapping up my third year of graduate school, I started to research companies and was looking for somewhere that I could still be in the lab and be pushed to innovate.  I am thankful that I have found that and thatI enjoy my job. 
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Chemicals have a bad rep; Are all chemicals bad?  No, the good chemicals are often overshadowed by the bad chemicals.  Yes, there are some things out there that no one should ever be exposed to, however chemicals are all around us.  The aspirin you take for a headache, the non-stick pan you cook on, the bag your cereal comes in, and water- these are all chemicals.  There is no way to live a chemical free life because everything around us is made of chemicals. 

How can I make chemistry fun in the classroom?  I knew I wanted to go into chemistry because of my high school teacher.  She made sure to relate our experiments and discussions in the classroom to everyday life.  We did experiments such as testing the amount of citric acid in juice, or measuring copper in a pre-1982 penny and comparing it to a post 1982 penny.  She took the theories and made them applicable to life outside of the textbook, that is what made it fun for me.
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Careers in Chemistry

8/17/2020

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Most people think a degree in chemistry limits you to working in a lab, however a chemistry degree opens a lot of possibilities.  Chemistry is everything around us, therefore a career in chemistry can range from working at a chemical company researching new compounds and new applications to working for the government. 
After getting a degree in chemistry, you need to ask yourself, what do I want to do with my degree?  There are several sectors to choose from:  industry, government and academia.  While not all sectors require an advanced degree, many chemistry majors decide to pursue a graduate degree.  Many PhD programs provide stipends and tuition payments for their graduate students.  This allows graduate students to teach undergraduate courses as well as work on a research project.  Many scientist roles require a PhD as well as college level teaching positions. 

There is a growing number of government funded careers which include public policy, forensics labs, patents and health and safety regulations.  A career in public policy can help scope the country’s science policy as well as safety and environmental regulations.  A career in forensics can range from analysis of evidence to being an expert witness at trial.  Forensics scientists develop new methods for analysis of evidence and help collect evidence.  A patent lawyer requires a background in both science and law, a chemistry degree is a good starting point to become a patent lawyer.  

Working as an industrial chemist opens up opportunities across diverse research areas.  Chemists are integral to the development of new products and materials in cosmetics, paints, plastics, food, technology, clothing, pharmaceuticals, and automobiles.  Chemists have their hand in everything from developing new vaccines/drugs to developing the package your cereal comes in.  Research scientists development new formulations for cosmetics and house paints as well as new materials for shoes and cars.  As an industrial chemist you can have your hand in everything from development of new compounds, building chemical reactors, or making toys using new polymers.  

A degree in chemistry gives you plenty of options.  You can teach, do research, and even work in public policy.  There are many options for you to work on fundamental research and advanced materials depending on what your scientific interests are.

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My STEM Journey: Michelle Mejia

8/7/2020

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Growing up I was always interested in science.  My parents encouraged my curiosity through gifts like an ant farm, a microscope, and a telescope.  My dad and I would sit outside in the dark countless nights looking at the stars.  I always wanted to understand how things worked or why they had certain properties and would read voraciously to learn more.
In high school, a teacher introduced me to chemistry through relatable experiments to understand the world around us.  We tested the acidity of various fruit juices, measured and calculated the percentage  of copper in pre-1982 pennies, and used M&M’s to create a hungry dragon experiment where flames dramatically shot out of a test tubes in a myriad of colors.  After my junior year, I knew I wanted to continue to study chemistry to learn more.

I arrived at college with my mindset on being an engineer, the perfect field for a person who is curious how things work.  However, the introduction to Chemical Engineering courses were not enough to satisfy my curiosity so I quickly pivoted, and became a chemistry major.  As excited as I was I also knew that I was adding an extra 4-5 years of school. I dove into my chemistry classes, found a lab to do research in and never looked back.  

After finishing my undergraduate degree, I started graduate school.  I loved waking up every morning and going into my research lab to run my experiments.  It was my happy place. I enjoyed making new compounds, analyzing them with various instruments, and having vials filled with compounds I made. I jumped for joy when I had a working device in my hands.  I worked countless hours in the lab and enjoyed every minute of it.  
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After five years of graduate school, I entered the professional world-I started my career at Dow as an analytical chemist.  Ten years have gone by, my job looks very different than the one I started with- I am focused on different techniques, I am leading projects, and I am traveling more for my job, but I am still enjoying the chemistry.  Working in the chemical industry is more than standing at a lab bench in a lab coat.  My job entails working with a team to develop an analytical plan for our products, or analyzing a metal part from a reactor that is failing.  It is teamwork, and mentoring, it’s coming up with new ideas for sustainability or pivoting when we get unexpected results.  Every day is a new job, there are new products we are planning to launch, new opportunities to lead a project, or learn a new technique, and every year I am glad I chose Chemistry. 

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What is Chemistry?

8/3/2020

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Chemistry is all around us- it is the gasoline we put in our cars, the batteries in our smartphones, and in the medication we take when we are sick. The study of the elements of the periodic table and how the elements combine to form compounds and materials with new properties is Chemistry.  These fundamental building blocks have been discovered by scientists in nature or have been created in a laboratory.  

There are five branches of chemistry: 
Analytical- focused on identifying and measuring physical and chemical properties
Physical- the study of how matter and energy interact
Organic chemistry- chemistry based on carbon containing compounds
Inorganic chemistry- the study of materials that contain metals
Biochemistry- the study of biological processes.  

Within these five branches, there is a broad array of fields- food chemistry, geochemistry, environmental chemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry, agricultural chemistry, the list goes on. 
Chemistry helps us understand the world we live in-it explains why soap works to clean our dishes, or why you have to add baking powder to a cake recipe.  Studying chemistry can open a lot of opportunities in fields ranging from cosmetics to automobile, fashion to food.  

Stay tuned for more this month, as we explore chemistry's potential career opportunities, it's importance in our everyday lives, offer resources for starting a career in chemistry and even feature some advice from a real life chemist! 
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