My favorite part about attending Old Dominion University was the people I met during my time there. I learned a lot about myself during those years from the small circle of friends I had established. I was also fortunate to know some older students who shared several of my chemistry courses. I cannot remember their names, but I do remember in mostly good terms the faces of the teaching assistants who instructed most of my lab courses.
I remember that I enjoyed the classes I took in the chemistry department. Several professors still stand out to me are Dr. Pinky McCoy who taught my very first chemistry course when I was a freshman, Jennifer Adamski who taught my organic chemistry lectures, Dr. John Donat who taught analytical chemistry lecture and lab, and Dr. John Cooper who taught the inorganic chemistry lecture and lab. The physical chemistry lab overseen by Dr. Ken Brown also stands out since it was the first time I was basically allowed to pursue the problems in whatever way I saw fit. I also had a chance to do some summer work with Dr. Jennifer Poutsma in the modelling of reaction pathways.
After graduating in December 2009, I briefly spent time in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Clemson University after it was suggested by Dr. Richard Gregory who I believe was the department chair at the time. I ultimately switched to the physics department at Clemson and worked under Dr. Apparao Rao doing research on nanomaterials in energy storage applications. I became well versed in the synthesis and analysis of carbon nanotubes, graphene, and various nanoparticles, and their integration into active materials for energy storage. I would regularly use Raman spectroscopy, FTIR, and electron microscopy to characterize my samples. I also relied on electrochemical methods for characterizing the performance of the batteries and capacitors that I fabricated. Electrochemistry did not stand out to me during my time at ODU, but I have since found it to be a very rich subject. The instruction and hands-on laboratory work at ODU had prepared me well for the daily tasks as a graduate student, even though I did not pursue my PhD in chemistry. In my mind, the fields of chemistry, materials science, and applied physics share much in common, often just using different phrases to describe the same phenomena. It's all atoms, fields, and thermo to me.
After earning my PhD in experimental physics, I spent some time continuing my work with Dr. Rao in a postdoctoral capacity. Several of the friends with whom I graduated were interested in industry positions and found jobs in the Bay area and Oregon. I have since moved from South Carolina to Boston, and am currently working as a postdoctoral fellow at Northeastern University with Dr. Ahmed Busnaina in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. I don't know anything about mechanical engineering. I am currently working to controllably assemble nanomaterials using electrochemical techniques similar to those mentioned above. In the future, I hope to continue research in the area of energy storage and generation at a national laboratory.