Category: Features
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An Interview with My Favorite Professor: Dr. Daniel J. Donoghue
WRITTEN BY SOPHIA HSU ILLUSTRATED BY CASSANDRA CHANG Thank you Dr. Donoghue for sharing your insights and experiences. Hearing your journey through academia has brought me closer to figuring out my own. My favorite chemistry class is definitely a toss-up between two of my elective courses: Molecules that Changed the World (CHEM 151) and Pharmacology…
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Is Industry Experience Beneficial Before Pursuing a Ph.D.?
WRITTEN BY ELIJAH KHALIL ROSALES Thank you so much to Samuel Landry for taking the time to sit down and chat about his experiences! If you’re mulling over career paths and aren’t sure what you want to do after graduation, don’t worry. You’re not alone! Many students, including myself, enter college unsure of what they…
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Whatever Happened to the Organic Chemistry of Tomorrow?
WRITTEN BY YALE HUANG ILLUSTRATED BY ANDREA ARMENDI Thank you to Professor Jeremy Klosterman and Professor Valerie Schmidt for their vital insight into the changes made to the organic chemistry series! The first time you sit behind the wheel of a car is an experience like no other. Maybe your first thought is, “Finally! Some…
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UC Strike Marks Turning Point for Higher Education
BY MICHAEL BORCHARD AND JULJA HOKANSON On November 14, 2022, a six week strike by academic workers along the entire University of California system commenced. Over 36,000 academic student employees represented by UAW Local 2865—including teaching assistants, graduate student researchers, graduate student instructors, tutors, and readers—organized in picket lines and withheld their labor. By December…
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The 17th Annual ACS-SA Undergraduate Research Symposium at UC San Diego
BY AAKASH DAVASAM On May 18, 2023, the 17th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium hosted by the American Chemical Society-Student Affiliates (ACS-SA) took place. This much-anticipated annual event brought together students and faculty from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UC San Diego to witness the diverse and groundbreaking work performed by undergraduate students. The…
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The $4 Million Research Facility Now Operational at UCSD
BY CHRISTOPHER NOWAK What is the largest instrument you’ve ever seen? Perhaps you’ve run a sample on a UV-Vis Spectrophotometer that takes up a whole benchtop. Maybe you’ve used an NMR instrument that’s even taller than you. The new Scripps Ocean-Atmosphere Research Simulator (SOARS) is the size of an entire building—and a big one, at…
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Computational Chemistry Research and Graduate Student Life with Abigail Dommer Ph.D. and Nick Wauer M.S.
BY PATIEMMA RUBIO As an undergraduate in Dr. Rommie Amaro’s computational chemistry research lab at UCSD, I have the opportunity to work with some amazing and intelligent people. Computational chemistry is expansive due to the endless possibilities of computers, and in our lab specifically, we use advanced theoretical and computational techniques to explore the structure,…
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Getting the Chance to Know a Fellow Biochemistry Transfer Student
BY JULJA HOKANSON What life is like as a transfer student in biochemistry When beginning his undergraduate journey at Palomar community college in San Marcos, California, first-year transfer student Kevin Tidwell did not always have his sights on studying biochemistry. In fact, it never crossed his mind to even pursue a major in a STEM…