EPR Symposium 2011

Last week I went on my annual trip to Aspen to present my research at the Rocky Mountain Analytical Conference (which is basically an EPR and solid-state NMR conference). This is one of the biggest EPR conferences in the world, so we are lucky to have it so close by! I presented two posters, one on my main research (Rapid-scan EPR) and another on a side project (A S/N standard for pulse EPR) I have been working on with Wilmad Glass and Bruker (more of an advertisement for a product than anything). I unfortunately did not take very many pictures this year, but here are a few of the posters.

These pictures were taken on the last day of the conference, because I kept leaving my camera in the hotel room, so we were not quite this casual when actually presenting our posters.

Below is Josh presenting (or pretending to present) his work on relaxation times of nitroxyl radicals.

Debbie: Rapid-scan EPR

Mike: DEER (distance measurements) on tau fibrils

Virginia: Relaxation processes of DPPH

School has been going well, I get to go to another conference, the national ACS conference, in about 3 weeks. We are lucky that it is in Denver this year, so that makes it easy! So, the ACS conference will be my third conference this year. I really like going to conferences because I enjoy talking with other people who have a pretty good understanding of my research. Scientific research is annoying because it is so specialized, that sometimes you do not even understand some of the projects that are going on in your own lab group! This is especially true in a group like ours made up of theoretical physicists, electrical engineers, physical chemists, biochemists, etc. However, I think it is because of the diversity in my lab group that I have learned so much.

I feel like I can sort of see the end in sight. Not that I know exactly when I will be graduating, but I have been working consistently on my dissertation and I think that I will be done by the end of 2012 (December...hopefully). My goal is to complete a rough draft of my dissertation by April 2012 and give it to my advisors. I figure if I write down this goal I will be more likely to complete it.

July was a good month for Vance and me. Vance had an easier month made up of an EKG course and a little break. It was so fun to hang out with him. It was a little sobering when Monday morning he was back on the wake up at 4 am/go to bed at 8 pm schedule. I don't know if I will ever get used to it! But, come December Vance will be pretty much done with medical school! At University of Colorado they give medical students something like 120 days off in there 4th year so that they can go on residency interviews, take boards, etc. Vance is still planning on general surgery, so he is working hard to make a good impression here in Denver.