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INVOINVEVILMN
'm1"' ABEgif  il g? . w " ' i t.zS   g M   a
Mezra MakesItW
It all started as an assignment for class.
Then it turned into a summer job. And
three years later, it is still being worked
on. Is it the world's most horrific assignment
or a tremendous opportunity?
As part of a Chemistry 116 assignment,
chemical engineering student Andrew
Mezera began doing research for Professor
Nicholas Abbott in a chemical engineering
lab that works primarily with liquid
crystals and surfactants. Mezera's research
was with light-sensitive surfactants called
BTHA.
Wheni the semester ended, Abbott offered
Mezera an opportunity to continue his
work throuLgh1out the summer. It was then
that he began working with the redox-ac-
tive   sUrfactant alignment of crystals.
Mezera became so engrossed in the re-
search over the summer that he came back
to work in the lab the next two summers.
By the end of his second summer, he was
tweaking his    procedures and trying
new things.
Mezera enjoyed getting something hands-on
to which he could apply his classroom
knowledge. He was also often familiar with
technical topics or ideas before he learned
about them in class and thus able to grasp
themn quickly.
Mezera shows off his slide preparation har
he creates slides for testing and observatii
At the end of the past summer, one of the
graduate students suggested Mezera
present his research at the February 2002
American Institute of Chemical Engineers
(AIChE) conference in Ann Arbor, MI.
Mezera thought it was a great opportu-
nity "to learn how to present [my] work,
both the process of putting it together and
the actual presentation itself." So he be-
"It was also cool to know
that I was the expert on my
subject, even though there
were people with PhDs
, !   -   ,,   _ ! _   _  _
listening to me.
gan preparing a highly technical presen-
tation on the "Active Control of the An-
choring of Liquid Crystals Using
Ferrocenyl Surfactants." Mezera says he
learned more about his system while pre-
paring for the presentation than he did
while working on it, because "it forced
[him] to sit down and really learn what
was happening in order to be able to ex-
plain it to someone else."
"Before my presentation, I was extremely
nervous," Mezera says of the February
morning he presented.
"ThIv weATrP ruinning La.
and I was supposed to go
first, so all I could do was
sit and wait. On the other
hand, I was really ex-
cited. I really liked my re-
search and was eager to
share it with others. It
was also cool to know
that I was the expert on
E my subject, even though
E there were people with
a PhDs listening to me."
< Mezera's presentation
was a success and he
IATOQ I - o1e, I c   i~i T
idiwork as   the judges' questions
on.
Mezera looKS tor the results ot his work
on crystal slides through a microscope.
smoothly. At the awards banquet that
night, Mezera accepted his award for sec-
ond place in the presentation competition,
an award that came with a $75 check and
a year-long subscription to the AIChE
Journal.
Thanks to a freshman chemistry project,
Mezera had the chance to see what re-
search was like and consider different re-
search opportunities before deciding on
a career path. Although he enjoys doing
research, there are still other experiences
he wants to try. Instead of working in the
lab again this summer, Mezera will be
working on co-op as an engineer for
Cargil. However, he  recommends that
anyone who wants to get a closer look at
what his or her field has to offer should
look into doing lab research. Who knows?
Your next assignment for class could turn
into the beginning of your career.
Karen Mandl
6    SUMMER 2002
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