Who to choose?!

The end of the week was really busy!

Thursday  was the Student Services Fair, which had lots of information about services offered by the school and the student union. I got free bags, water bottles, a 4 GB usb, a bottle opener, iced tea, etc… The end of O-week finished on Friday! There was a club/society fair and I also met with some chemistry professors!

Club Fair

There were a lot of societies that came out; it was actually a little overwhelming. Unlike back home, I actually had to purchase memberships, so it was very hard to decide what to join. The first club I joined was the Physics Society, since membership was only $2. Unfortunately there is no chemistry club and I couldn’t find the chemical engineering society there (not that it’s the same as chemistry anyway).  I also joined WISE, Women In Science and Engineering, for $3. Finally, I joined the Australasian Association for $7. This last one is purely a social club and it seemed like it would be a lot of fun.  I also got a lot of cool freebies from them, including a usb membership card, portable chopsticks, and a drink card for a place I think I’ll check out now (Golden Monkey).

Chemistry!

Before going to the club fair, I stopped at the chemistry building. I selected my modules for CHEM30014: inorganic, photomolecular, and computational chemistry. I also thought I would try to speak to Professors Boskovic and Abrahams (CHEM30013 Research Project). Luckily, both were in their office when I stopped by to discuss their projects and their groups.

Professor Abrahams was really friendly and easy going. It was really easy to talk to him about his research and ask him questions. I thought it was interesting that the systems his group works on have such HUGE ligands. Seriously…HUGE. His group is very interested in using x-ray crystallography. I would be very interested in actually solving my own crystal structure if I were to work for him! My overall impression was that he would be a really nice adviser and would be able to help me learn more about a super useful characterization technique.

I got the impression that Professor Boskovic’s group was a bit larger and that she ran a very tight ship. What intrigued me about her group was that she used more physical methods to characterize complexes. I think it would be great for me to be exposed to those techniques! Her group also has more group meetings; there is one every week and individual meetings every Thursday. I think she also warmed up to me a bit more after she found out who I worked for and where I attend uni back home. Overall, it seemed like she had a lot of good work going on in her group.

Based on my discussions with both I think I’ve decided to list my preference as follows

1.  Abrahams (inorganic)
2. Boskovic (inorganic, physical chemsitry)
3. Mulvaney (quantum dots)
4. Wille (organic)

I think there is only one place in the Abrahams lab, so hopefully I’ll get it! Professor Abrahams did mention that he wanted someone enthusiastic about inorganic and I was definitely excited when I talked to him (I mean who wouldn’t be excited about inorganic chemistry?!).