Importance Of Material Science

I was born and raised in Palestine, which has been occupied by Israel for the past 68 years. Growing up under the occupation I learned the smell of tear gas and the sound of bullets before I learned my alphabets, just like every other Palestinian child. That was the only reality that I have ever known, and so I wanted an escape. I found that escape in science. It started when my parents bought me a set of children’s science books as a child, which included simple do-it-yourself experiments. Making vinegar and baking soda volcanos or oobleck took my mind away from the reality I was in. I grew up dreaming of becoming a scientist, but there was no way for me to get any hands on experience. The state of the country meant that we couldn’t have any …show more content…
During that summer I worked on a project that functionalized a lignin model compound with acetoacetate to test the feasibility of functionalizing the readily available lignin in order to use it as an economically viable feed material for making eco-friendly coatings. This project made me interested in material science as a career path for a number of reasons. Firstly I could see that the overall research was designed with direct applicability in mind, a paradigm of thought which can help me achieve my goals in the future. I was also fascinated by the art of tweaking micro-properties of molecules to change the macro-properties of materials. Furthermore I appreciated the project’s adherence to the principles of green chemistry, as I believe it’s the responsibility of all scientists to be eco-friendly. What was satisfying to me more than anything else though was being able to see the results of my research directly when I held the finished formulations in my hand at the …show more content…
The course focused on teaching the skills on how to develop a research project in addition to working within a team of researchers. I was placed in charge of my research group, and together we designed a project to test the role of membrane proteins of different Antarctic bacteria in freeze-thaw stress tolerance. I lead the team in creating a hypothesis, designing experiments, writing a research proposal, and delegating lab responsibilities. Here I learned the value of collaboration in science and gained a better appreciation how much efforts goes into starting a research project. The same summer I was also accepted into another REU program at the University of Minnesota’s Chemistry Department, under the direction of Dr. Ginaluigi Veglia. This project studied protein dynamics and structure of Calmodulin and Phospholamban proteins using large scale solution and solid state NMR spectroscopy. This made me interested in the techniques to analyze the properties of macro-molecules, biological and