Nicholas Massenburg, Entry # 5, The Final Stretch Part 1

I wasn't able to get to the blog this past week and a half ago, so I thought I would take this time to reflect on the last bit of my stay here.

The lab has gotten even bigger than when I first got here, and by about seven people. My lab is housed in the Dental School of UPenn (which I've come to find out is very very expensive, good thing I have no interest in Dentistry). Second and third year students, in addition to their clinic rotations, must do a supervised bio laboratory rotation under a pathology PI. This means space in the office areas has been scarce, which has stalled some of my work. The lab science portion of my studies with STC-2 has come to an end, and in these last two weeks, I will be dedicated to quantifying our obtained results using averaging algorithms on excel, as well as the Keyence microscopy machine and antibody staining. When I first arrived to the lab, I snagged one of two free computers in the office space, but now since so many other people also need the computer for work, I find that I am getting bumped from my seat very often. This has decreased the efficiency of my analysis, but is not something that has been too cumbersome.

In addition to the minimal amount of time available on each computer, other factors (of my own doing) have been slowing down the analysis. Having misread the conditions for the labeled plates we used in the experiment, I applied the wrong conditions to the wrong calculations, and when I made graphs for those calculations, the mistakes were too late. A two day project became five days as I had to start from scratch on four separate experiments. Post-doc Dan has been very polite about these setbacks, but this is his work and livelihood, so I'm a little worried that this might be interfering with his progress. He reassured me, however, that it is his job to teach me, and that I have nothing to worry about.

In our past round of lab presentations, I received acknowledgements in three separate projects because of my contributions to structure, theory, or phrasing (on the acknowledgements page, since my name is so long, you can immediately see it tucked in the middle of the listed names). I find that I have also been contributing to one of my strongest areas in public speaking and presentation. After I helped one grad student prepare for her presentation in front of her program, several other lab members have come to me to help them with their presentations. I was surprised and how lacking in public speaking skills that much of the lab is, but ultimately I am glad my assistance has helped in perfecting presentations.

To be continued on Part 2...........