Blog Challenge 2: Stephen Lau

1) Where are you from and what high school did you go to?

2)  What college did you go to as an undergraduate and why?

3)   How did high school affect your decision for college or field in which you study in?

4)    Why did you choose to study in the field of chemistry?

5)     What kind of undergraduate programs did you do in  college?

6)      What is your preference and why, computational or experimental chemistry?

7)       Why did you choose Duquesne as your choice to undertake your graduate school?

8)        What do you plan to do after receiving your degree?

9)         What is your goal in life?

10)         When do you plan to retire after being successful in what you want to do?

Kendy Pellegrene

     Kendy Pellegrene is a another member of Madura's Research lab and is from Blairsville, PA.  She went to Blairsville high school and pursued her career in pharmacy in Washington and Jefferson College because it was not too far yet not too close to her hometown.  She wanted to make sure she could go somewhere away from her high school and start anew where she can learn new opportunities and meet different people.  It was decided to follow in the field of pharmacy becasue she had enjoyed biology all her life.  Through her time getting her master's degree in biology, Kendy has come to love cellular and molecular biology which are basically background information on how drugs work, which ultimately have led her here to research more into this topic in Madura's research group.  Kendy undergone research throughout her years at W&J with another professor, researching on different types of mushrooms. She had also done a program at Pitt over the summer which related to her field of study biology.  After all her experiences, Kendy has no preference in either computational or experimental labs because she finds them both important to research.  However, she finds computational more difficult but mostly because she has more experience in experimental labs.  Kendy decided to partake her PHD at Duquesne because it was another college close to her home and yet not too far away from it.  She also previously performed a collaboration project with Dr. Madura so she was already familiar with some of Duquesne's professors.  After receiving her degree she plans on getting a job in the industry where she can hopefully end up retiring early and travel the world in her spare time.  Through her busy research though, she continues and pursue her life goal...and that is to live an enjoyable and carefree life.