Dr. Jeffry Madura's Academic Career

(Click here to view the video of this interview)

Growing up in Transfer, Pennsylvania. Jeffry D. Madura had no idea what he wanted to be when he grew up. Then, in the fifth grade, he started testing soil and the sparks started to fly- he had instantly developed an interest in science. It wasn't long before he dumped the soil to move on to bigger and better things.

As a high school student Jeffry was your average jock, spending his time on the basketball court and the football field at Reynolds High School. "Because there were no computers at the time, it was hard to be a nerd." Jeffry explains, even though he loved biology, chemistry, and physics.

After four years of being a star athlete, Jeffry moved on to Thiel college, where he declared a major of chemistry. He gave up being a star athlete and quit athletics to become a star pupil. There were 4 good faculty members that gave him the love of chemistry he still has today.

Knowing he wanted to continue his education, he tried out Purdue University to get his Ph.D in chemistry. His thesis was on gas phase reactions. Although it may be hard to believe, Jeffry did struggle to pass his qualifying exams. He was given 4 hours to answer 8 questions, an almost impossible task when the subject is physical chemistry. The only thing he regrets is not going as a Post Doc.

It wasn't long before he took on the challenging role as Chair of Duquesne University's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. "It was a real learning experience learning to juggle." He explains. It was most rewarding seeing his faculty becoming successful. After 10 years, he stepped down. His philosophy is to get new ideas, new new energy. Now, his goal is to train as many students as possible. He continues to share his gifts and touch almost every student he meets.

Interview with a Grad

When I interviewed Derrick, I found out he came a long way from his high school in Washington to here at Duquesne. Back in high school, he was like most kids, unsure of what he really wanted to do in life. Then one day, in church his priest showed them a video of molecular biology, and it really grabbed his interest. That was when Derrick decided he wanted to study biochemistry.

So Derrick continued to work through high school, going through hardships like everyone else. Some past regrets were letting his girlfriend distract him from his work, not being able to give back enough to all the people that helped when he needed it most and not socializing more when he had the chance.

After high school Derrick went to a small catholic college in Oregon where he continued working on biochemistry. College was at first a little overwhelming with freedom. That's where he found out that all the times people talk about getting drunk and all those other crazy things they do in college really aren't as great as they sound. Although, while they're not always that great, it doesn't mean you shouldn't go party every once in awhile. It's important to find the balance between having fun and knowing all your work will be done too.

Then the choice came to decide where to go for graduate school. It was between a college in Washington, his home, or Duquesne, a college far away, but with good opportunities. In the end he felt Duquesne calling him and chose to come here. It was different being so far away and in a completely new place, but it was also like an adventure. When you move far away you're on you're own and you miss your friends and your family, but that isn't always bad. It's a little more daring, but it also means you get the chance to be whoever you want to be and just explore. From the west to the northeast is a good change of scenery, too.

Trip to Bayer!

Today we took a field trip to Bayer. It was actually pretty interesting. We were able to see how bowling balls were made. (which was my favorite part) It was cool to see how these different things in our everyday lives are made. It's not something that everyone gets to see. It's also interesting to see the other side of what goes on in the world considering we're in an area of academia most of the time. It's nice to see the jobs that the people at Bayer do and it's cool to learn about how they got there.

Finally, some results!

So after 6 weeks of hard work, I got some results out of the numbers that were being stored on the computer. I learned how to extract the numbers, and how to chart them on an excel spreadsheet. What I'm finding in these supplements is really shocking. How could a company not know they're putting things like arsenic and mercury into their supplements?! The numbers and results always give me a little ego boost, because I did all of the work to get those numbers, and it's a nice reward. Sometimes you don't see where the hard work goes, but this time I did. Everybody at the symposium was really impressed with my work, including my principal, Melanie Kerber, and my superintendent Fran Serenka. They were also impressed with the fact that I'm a high school student. All the research is real, and I'm sorry to say but when exploring the symposium posters on my free time, I saw some displays that were worse than those ones of the high school students. What a shame.

Interview With a Grad Student

Yesterday I sat down with Kim, a grad student in Dr.Aitken's lab, to discuss college, being a grad student, and how she ended up where she is today. We talked about many things, from why she chose chemistry to her fascinations with knowledge as a child. Through talking with her I gained insight into how I should think about college and what I should look for in a career.
When Kim was in first grade she had her first science lab, and that is when she fell in love with it. She was always interested in learning how things worked and how stuff like chairs and phones were made, and by whom. Although she loved science, she also loved teaching, but having a career as a science teacher wasn't very appealing at the time. Growing up with science teachers that wore pocket protectors, and suspenders did not help her opinion of science teachers. To her and her classmates science teachers seemed like big jokes, because all of them wore very unfashionable attire. As she became older she realized not all science teachers have to dress like that, and so Kim became set on being something that would incorporate her two loves, a science teacher. When she was in high school she decided that she wanted to go somewhere close to home, because she's very close to her family, and wanted to have them close. She decided on going to St. Francis University in Loretto, Pa. She went there majoring in education. She soon realized that it's very easy to get caught up in your subject's social groups. When she took classes like Physical chemistry, which was the hardest class for her due to the size of the substance you're working with, she became caught up in the chemistry social group, because they were forced to work together for long hours so socializing with others outside of your subject of study was uncommon. When she finally had the oppurtunity to decide where she wanted to go for grad school it wasn't a difficult decision, because she already knew what she wanted. She picked Duquesne, because of how close it is to her family. Although, deciding where to go was somewhat easy, being a grad was not. She had to learn quickly that not everything was going to work, and after trying something over and over again, you have to stop at some point. Doing so much work on something, and ending up with it being unsuccessful was hard. She said when you become a grad you realize just how naive you were. Her greatest success though was being able to start reseach before college, which did give her some insight for being a grad. Although she loved loved being a grad, because you don't have set hours, she missed the freedom of being an undergrad, and the different people. She regretted not spending enough time on her non chem classes, and that she was shy and didn't ask questions. This is something I can easily relate to, and is one of the reasons talking to her helped so much. Mr. Lucas always says be assertive, now I have someone else pushing me to be assertive too.

Dr. Cavanaugh the Pharmacologist

Dr. Cavanaugh was just a regular girl growing up in Reading Pennsylvania. She attended Central Catholic High School and took your regular medley of classes including AP English and Chemistry. Her great chemistry teacher led her to want to study chemistry more and delve into the mysteries of the chemistry world.

Dr. Cavanaugh continued her magical journey called school by going to Franklin and Marshall in Lancaster PA. While she had a good time her freshman year, it is something she regrets because of her somewhat relaxed attitude towards school. It was her first time away from home and she wanted to take the time to relish in her newfound freedom. Since then she has realized that you only have one chance to do it right and that is one of her biggest regrets.

Afterwards however she learned how to manage her time more and buckled down to learn. She majored in Chemistry there but with the wisdom and guidance of her Spirit Mentor(most call them "College Advisors") she decided to go to Penn State College of Medicine for Pharmacology in Hershey because of its practical use, medical relevance, and the combination of both chemistry and biology(she didn't choose Penn State for the chocolate though). She then went to get her post-doc at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Now-a-days though she works at Duquesne University where she educates students. Her favorite part is getting to meet students that are like little birds. Students that require her help to grow and to learn but soon after become very capable and are able to survive on their own. Her second greatest accomplishment has to be helping her students to become independent thinkers and help them become ready to tackle gigantic challenges and obstacles. Her greatest accomplishment however has nothing to do with education. Her greatest accomplishment is her daughter.

Carpe Diem

Ian Carroll

Interview!! =)

So, I decided to interview Liz's grad student, Chelsee Krushaar. Let me say that Liz's lab is very funny and they have soo much fun in there.

Chelsee went to Canon-Macmillan high school and graduated in 2005. She then went to Carlow University for her undergrad and double majored in Biology and Chemistry. She specialized in autopsy technology. She then started at Duquesne.

Chelsee said that during her school life she was a nerd in high school. She was in band (which is awesome! =]) and she was very quiet. She didn't talk to many people. Once she got into college, she opened up a lot more by doing tours at Carlow University. If she could have changed anything, she would have been much more open in high school. I asked her what Canon-Macmillan was like considering it's a very big school and it's very different from where I attend high school. After hearing her opinion, we got into a discussion on opinions about different schools and how their educations differ from one another. Aside from having Chelsee's opinion, I also had some opinions of others in her lab. Chelsee, Tom, Shawn and I discussed the advantages and disadvantages of colleges and their educations. We also talked about the social aspect of college and the advantages and disadvantages of being on campus or commuting from home. Believe it or not, hearing all of their perspectives helped me a little bit.

I asked Chelsee what got her interested in what she does now and she said that there are many reasons. She has always been interested in biology and chemistry. It's something that she has always been good at. She has always been fascinated by the human body and how it works. Another thing that got her interested is that her mother is sick and that got her interested in the human body while she looked at what was wrong with her.

Finally, I asked Chelsee what her future plans and goals were after she was done with school. She said that after school, she would like to go into teaching. She'd like to be a professor at a college.