Dec09
Posted on Dec 9 by
The entire GRAB Lab Team – Hunter, Julia, Ryan, Hailey, Donalissa, Kristy, and Dr. Gerdon – had an amazing time making new friends in Ms. Alexius’ chemistry classes today at the O’Bryant School of Math and Science in Roxbury. It was a beautiful morning for the short 26 min walk over to our neighbors. We got to spend time with four different classes to talk about Emmanuel College, life in college, studying chemistry, undergraduate research, and our current research projects. The students had tons of great questions about everything from in-depth chemistry to life in the dorms. We finished with a chemistry trivia match between high school students and undergraduate students about the periodic table. We also got an honorary mascot in Sprinkles the bearded dragon. Camilla (Ms. Alexius) and her students were awesome hosts and we are planning to visit again in...
Dec02
Posted on Dec 2 by
It is great to be in Boston! World-class, amazing researchers come to us every fall for the Materials Research Society conference held at Hynes Convention Center. Dr. Gerdon was able to get away after class on Thursday to hear some great talks and present on “DNA aptamers and self-assembled DNA materials as bioinspired modulators of calcium mineralization“. There was a great crowd, a number of good questions, and several fruitful discussions after the talk during the break. It is encouraging and inspiring and is great confirmation that our undergraduate researchers are doing high quality work on par with anyone else in the field. Congrats to the whole group, current students and...
Nov07
Posted on Nov 7 by
Check out the spooky lab pumpkins, courtesy of the Chem Club at Emmanuel College. Kristy, Hailey, Donalissa and many other worked hard to make this event successful and scary! Great...
Nov06
Posted on Nov 6 by
Hunter is very excited to be one of the newest members of the GRAB Lab research team! Hunter is working on a project in the area of forensics and is using this research project to fill his internship requirement. His goal is to make solid lipid nanoparticles that can fluoresce when they come into contact with a latent fingerprint. He is very happy to be able to be a part of this team full of people who are so passionate about chemistry and...
Oct31
Posted on Oct 31 by
Finding time to be successful in research during the academic year is a huge challenge for undergraduate students and professors. Dr. Gerdon has had an awesome semester working on so many great things – students building LEGO spectrophotometers in the Instrumental Analysis course, helping with a recent NECHE accreditation visit, working with Campus Mission & Ministry, developing a Social Justice Chemistry Seminar course, and much more. So, when do we find time for research? The students have done a great job of working little by little, one step at a time, to make forward progress. Each completed experiment and piece of data is celebrated as a success, even if it sometimes sends us back to the drawing board. The same is true for Dr. Gerdon – he has spent his most productive time helping with abstracts for the Spring ACS meeting and preparing this presentation that he will be giving at the Materials Research Society conference in Boston in...
Oct24
Posted on Oct 24 by
Julia is so excited and sad that this is her final semester of doing research. She misses the fun of doing summer research with the GRAB lab but enjoys continuing her research during the school year as well! She has loved seeing the progress of the Quartz Crystal Microbalance project since she started and hopes to make some final strides before the semester ends. Julia recently has continued incorporating DNA aptamers into her mineralization experiments and analyzing the data. She is looking forward to making more memories in the lab and with the GRAB lab, especially when they take over Indianapolis for the ACS conference! Julia has also been busy on campus as a member of the Student Government Association (SGA). Emmanuel College is going through a regular (but major) accreditation process with the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) and Julia is doing a superb job of representing Emmanuel students in this important...
