On Monday, October 7th, a few friends and I attended a seminar at the Ohio State Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Building about semiconductors in nanocrystals and conical intersections. The presenter was Benjamin Levine, a professor and researcher from Michigan State University.
A group of us went to the CBEC Building to attend this seminar. From what I could tell, it seemed like we were some of the only undergraduate students in the seminar. I felt a bit out of place, but we simply came to listen to the presentation and get a feel for this sort of seminar. I personally did not get a chance to talk to anyone after, as I had a class I needed to attend immediately following. However, if I did have the chance to talk to the presenter, I may have asked about how he conducts his research or if he has any advice for someone looking to do research in the future.
Being honest, I did not understand much of the content that was presented within the presentation. The concepts explained by the presenter were very technical and sophisticated chemistry concepts, and my limited knowledge within this area made it difficult to grasp the ideas he was trying to get across. However, as a first year undergraduate student, I did not expect to understand everything he was going to say. The value behind this experience came through seeing how the research was conducted and how the presenter shared his findings. In terms of research in my area, I can say that the presentation is what I expected academic research to be like. Obviously, academic research has a very narrow scope within a particular content area; and although I am not focusing on chemical and material engineering, this is what I imagined engineering-based research would look like.
For anyone that is looking to do any sort of research at any point in their life, getting involved in the academic community as an undergraduate student is a great way to gain experience and understanding of how research is conducted and how it is presented to the public. I may be interested in doing academic research in a STEM related field at some point in my life, so getting to be at a presentation of genuine research was very interesting. Additionally, it can be just another way to further one’s knowledge about a certain concept or idea, even if the concept is not in their area of study.
After attending this seminar event, I cannot really say that I am an expert in semiconductors in nanocrystals or conical intersections. However, I feel that the experience of sitting in on a presentation of academic research from an established university was a beneficial experience. I hope that one day I will be able to conduct research and present it in a similar setting to what I saw this past Monday. Also, as I further my knowledge in my area of study, I may begin attending seminars about concepts that I understand to learn about research taking place in the academic community.