Friday, July 28, 2017
By:
Ten weeks for research can be resembled as running a marathon. At the beginning, you are getting acquaintance with the road, becoming familiar with the feel of the wind and you visualize the finish line. As the summer progressed, milestones were passed week by week, reaching this last stretch of the race. Week 9 felt like the last mile sprint; the one that even when you are mentally tired, you trained your body is to give 110% until the end.
A summer full of highs and lows, especially the plot-twist of week 8, had me with my arms were above my head as I gasp for air. With the help of those in my lab and some outside help, including fellow SPS interns, director, and friends, I came to work full of energy. I must have looked like a chicken without a head, running around like crazy making something work. Between watching the speed of my filtration, drop by drop, to tiptoeing other researcher's time for me to use an apparatus to get more data; to even spending many hours after work at home doing data analysis or tweaking the presentation, it was an unforgettable week.
One thing that stuck with me was some words from Jeff Fagan, a collaborator from MML at NIST, as I paraphrase his words:
"Even world renown scientist make mistakes. What truly matters is to realized and acknowledge you've made a mistake.
This will allow you to always keep improving as a person and a scientist"
The following pictures were from the Renwick Gallery, my favorite art gallery in the city.
Luis Royo Romero