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Week 3

Week 3 of the REU program was interesting as it involved a variety of experiences. I started off the week by attending the annual conference for the North American Membrane Society (NAMS). Also, I got to present an overview of my project to my fellow REU students towards the middle of the week and worked in the lab during the end of the week.

The NAMS conference was an awesome experience. I was exposed to different applications of membranes by great scientists in the field that I am researching. One of my favorites was a membrane with enzymes on it that converted lignin, a common compound in plants, into something more valuable. Also, I was able to attend multiple presentations conducted by my lab-mates and see some of their posters to find out more about what they have been working on. Aside from presentations, NAMS included some social events, including a reception, a lunch, and a banquet. At these events, I had the opportunity to meet some students from other schools. Furthermore, I got to spend a lot of time with people working in my lab in order to get to know them better. One thing is for sure: I will be working with some awesome people during my time researching at UK! I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. DB, for this great opportunity and Andrew Colburn, one of my lab mentors, for advice about attending this conference.

Aside from attending the NAMS conference in the beginning of the week, I got to share a brief background on my project as well as some of my possible goals, methods, and expected results with my fellow REU students. Furthermore, I had the opportunity to listen to their presentations and hear a little bit about the projects that they will be completing this summer.

To wrap up my week, I got to work in the lab. During this time, one of the experiments that I performed was an investigation of polyacrylic acid (PAA) gel. This experiment consisted of mixing different masses of PAA with water to obtain a gel (pictured below) and then seeing how much water  was needed in total to create and dissolve the gel. The purpose of this experiment was to help me understand some properties of PAA. Another thing that I worked on was creating a solution that is required to make a type of membrane that I plan on analyzing for my project.

Next week, I plan on continuing to create the membrane that I worked on this week and may conduct some hydrophilicity tests on two types of membranes that I have made thus far.



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