My name is
Allison O’Neill and I am a sophomore Biochemistry major. This semester, Fall of
2016, I am doing research under Dr. Foster to isolate aquatic humic substances and
study their chemical structure as well as numerous physical properties. When I
was first introduced to this project, I was originally interested in working as
an assistant to one of his graduate students in the lab. However, I talked with
Dr. Foster more and we decided on a project that I would be best suited to work
on. As of now, I have had many opportunities to gain experience working with
other researchers in my field of study, as well as working in a chemistry lab
and contributing knowledge to my field. Having this experience will help me
prepare for my later goals of going to medical school and studying to become a
doctor.
My project took
a while to get off of the ground. There is not a concrete method to extract
humic substances from an aquatic source, but Dr. Foster and a previous
undergraduate student of his, Zohair Khan, had developed a technique after
reading many articles on the subject. They came up with a glass column packed
with the resin DAX-8 that the water samples would be filtered through. However,
our first attempt at working with the column resulted in it breaking and we had
to go back to the drawing board. After a month of reconfiguring and waiting
patiently for parts to come in, I was finally able to start my research.
A typical week
for me consists of collecting water samples from various water sources in the
Potomac watershed. Then I take them back to the lab and perform a simple
distillation of the water, place the filtered sample in the cooler, and have
the samples filtered through the resin within 48 hours. Then the resin will be
backwashed and deionized. Finally, the samples will be ready to be further
analyzed. This can become very overwhelming and time consuming, but I get a lot
of support from Dr. Foster and he has helped me understand how hard, yet
rewarding, research can be. Ultimately, the biggest thing that I have learned
from this experience is to be patient. Since I was unable to start my research
right away because of the broken equipment, I had to learn to be patient and
prepare for other aspects of my research in the mean time. Furthermore, I plan
on continuing this research into next semester, since I will not have enough
time to finish everything I planned on this semester.
