Blog Challenge #5 Part 2

For the second half of the challenge, we were instructed to interview a graduate student or professor using questions that we made up. I chose to interview Kim Rosmus, a graduate student in Dr. Aitken's lab.

So, why Duquesne?

·         I chose Duquesne because it has a small undergraduate department. I didn't want to go to a big school where there were 20+ students per research group and become overwhelmed. I also like how it is close to home and in the city setting.

Did you give any other schools any thought?

·         I toured the University of Pittsburgh. Each field of chemistry has their own floor and it didn't seem like they talked to each other. I also thought it was too large of a school, I wanted to go somewhere small. Also, the environment wasn’t friendly or creative.

How did you get interested in science?

·         In 4^th grade, I got to dissect an own pellet and then reconstruct a mouse skeleton from it, and I thought that was really cool. I love science in general and how you can experiment with everything.

What are you researching?

·         I focus mainly on diamond like semiconductors. The main one is Co2ZnSiS4, started out as an intro in to the lab. The lab found out it that it was a polymorph and she is still researching it 5 years later.

·        Another big interest to her is rietveld refinement.

Do you enjoy your time here?

·         As much as it drives me nuts, I do. There’s always something to do, it’s never boring. I like that it’s not redundant.