Pomegranate Moon Pies

This is it.  The end of an era.  Tomorrow I leave the world of academia and become a full-fledged member of the working class.  That's right people, I'm a student no longer.  No more will I be able to use my university ID to get cheap movie tickets.  I'll be paying full price at the local Chipotle.  I have to give up my Amazon U account.  Goodbye academic bubble, I'm going to miss your warm, fuzzy, safe feeling.

I've been waiting years to be able to say these magical words.  The words that every PhD longs to scream from the rooftops and post to their facebook page.  I GOT A JOB!  After several long months of searching the job market, having phone interviews and visiting companies for on-sites, I finally scored my dream job.

2011 has been a great year for me, finished my project, got a job and there's even more to tell, but not today.  I think I've had enough excitement for one day.  Today I have about a million and one things to accomplish at my university lab before I head out of town on Thursday.  My to do list is very, very long and things keep getting added to it.  So, now I focus.  Thursday, I celebrate!

 

Baked Pasta Casserole

When one is on the edge of finishing a major project at work, everything else seems to fall to the side.  Drying your hair before you go to work?  Nah, I'll save twenty minutes if I just rock a ponytail.  Plus, my hair dryer is broken.  Go to the gym after getting home from the lab?  At nine o'clock at night, nah, I'd rather have some dinner and go to sleep.  Make and eat dinner?  That too sounds like a lot of work, I'll have cereal.

In the weeks leading up to Tuesdays post, I was insanely busy.  I would spend most of my waking hours in the lab, trying to finish my molecule.  After a week of eating cereal for dinner I decided that had to stop.  First, my pants were starting to fall off from lack of food.  Second, you wake up ravenous in the middle of the night when you only eat cereal!

I actually made this dish one saturday morning while I got ready to go to the lab.  It was quick and easy and made a ton of food.  Plus, it was kinda healthy.  Or at least it was, until I added in all that cheese.  Feel free to cut down on the mozzarella cheese, I was being a little crazy.

Chocolate cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream

I am and oxymoron.  My job title is "synthetic organic chemist."  When I tell people this I get many, many looks of confusion.  As an explanation I tell them that I make chemicals synthetically that are naturally found in nature.  Are you confused yet?  Most people just walk away.

You can also call me a natural products chemist.  Is this any less of an oxymoron?  I'm not really sure.  As a graduate student and postdoctoral associate I have been making natural products for the past eight years.  Here is a step-by-step explanation of why a synthetic organic chemist does what they do...

1. Sea sponge (or plant or animal or dirt) is collected by isolation chemists

2. Sea sponge is extracted and lots of neat-o chemicals are found inside of the sea sponge

3. Neat-o chemicals are tested against many, many cell screens.  The biologists look for activity against human disease

4. Neat-o, disease-killing chemical is published and given a fancy name like Neatoside F

5. Synthetic organic chemists (like me!) decide it's a worthwhile target and try to make neatoside F

6. On Friday, June 17th, they succeed in making neatoside F and celebrate with cupcakes!

That's right, after months of hard work, I finished my target.  It's a big day in the life of a synthetic organic chemistry, the day you bring your molecule into the world.  You've watched it grow, seen it make bad choices and even seen it fall apart in the face of tough conditions.  The SOC continues to nurture their target until finally it comes shining into existence.  There is no prouder day in the life of a SOC, until that work finds it's way into a major publication, of course.  It's like a birth announcement.  Welcome to the world neatoside F!