Jermon Franklin: A Macro sized Lesson from a Nanosized Problem
During my summer research at The University of Cincinnati, I grew significantly as a scientist; when I first was accepted into the REU program I was uncertain if I wanted to pursue a Ph.D. or even do research in general. Doing a Ph.D. sounded like a lot of effort for something I was so uncertain about, and to dedicate possibly years of my life to a single subject was terrifying. I wanted to leave school and possibly start using my degree immediately, not go get another degree and possibly get myself involved with something that I wouldn't enjoy. However, throughout this past summer, I discovered that not only do I want to pursue a Ph.D. but I love research so much that I want to do it for the rest of my life.
In Ph.D. programs, students are categorized under the expert they are working with. For example, Dr. Alavarez was one of the Electrochemistry and Analytical chemistry lab experts at The University of Cincinnati. During the summer I was placed in the Alvarez lab, where I researched the synthesis of nanoparticles, a subject I had never learned about before. I was tasked with synthesizing nanoparticles that would later be used to grow carbon nanotubes. These nanoparticles are particles that are formed on the nanoscale, which meant that specialized machines were needed to analyze them.
Carbon nanotubes are graphene molecules bonded to one another on a large scale in an array; when this is formed it can be folded into the cylinder, and that is a carbon nanotube. Carbon nanotubes are used for many applications, but in the Alvarez lab, they were used for research in electrodes, supercapacitors, and sensors. All of this information was new to me, and I was uncertain of how I would handle this challenge. I was still not certain if I wanted to do research.
Synthesizing nanoparticles is already a difficult task in itself; to make nanoparticles that can be used for carbon nanotube synthesis you need a certain size, shape, and dispersion. All these factors together lead to a summer of constant reading, learning, experimenting, and acquiring techniques.
There were many days where I came into the lab with low morale and the desire to stop trying, but when I put on my lab coat each day it reminded me why I did research and why I enjoyed it. Putting on my lab coat as I prepared for another experiment made me feel like my years in school had a purpose, I was doing something for the greater good of society, and I could make a change in the world of research. I would spend hours in the lab staring at my experiments as I watched them react; I was proud of every one of them. I felt pride and happiness that I used my knowledge and ability to make something that could help others. This feeling was the first realization I had that I enjoy doing research and that I might want to consider doing a Ph.D.
The second experience I had that solidified my desire to do a Ph.D. was the group meetings. In PHD research groups there are weekly meetings where your lab gathers to talk about what they have been researching and studying over the week. During one meeting, Dr. Alvarez spoke to the entire lab about the importance of what we do: we had a responsibility not only to the taxpayers who funded our research, but to the people whose lives our research might save. I had never viewed research in this way, but he truly gave me an understanding of what they do. They spend their time and their lives dedicated to the cause of trying to progress humanity in a better and brighter direction. Hearing Dr.Alvarez's mindset and seeing the other people in my lab perform their research allowed me to realize that I also wanted to be a part of that. I want to be a part of a research lab one day and conduct research that could possibly change or save people’s lives.
Research is not a simple task; it has many challenges. Some of the challenges I faced this summer were the moments when I failed to synthesize nanoparticles with the correct size, shape, and dispersion– after spending an entire day in the lab synthesizing them. These failures allowed me to truly understand the essence of science and what it takes to do research. Science is about trial and error; science is never as straightforward as society makes it out to be. A major part of learning, life, and science is to fail; the only way I can learn more about myself and about what I was researching was by failing, and then finding out why.
Once I came to this understanding, I realized I grew exponentially as not only a person but as a scientist. If I had approached my research this summer with this mindset sooner, I most likely would have gotten a lot further and faster with my research, and faster; all it took was a change of mindset and an understanding of what research is truly like. What makes research so difficult is how easy it is to do something wrong, and then you spend the rest of your time researching what you did wrong. This is what makes a Ph.D. program so long: people spend the majority of their time researching the anomalies that took place in their research since the results were different from their hypothesis.
I was the happiest when I was synthesizing nanoparticles or making new ideas for my experiments. At the moment, I didn’t realize this because I was so bogged down in getting my experiment to work correctly, but I truly enjoyed what I was doing, and it gave me a sense of happiness and purpose to do it. I will always be thankful to the Alavarez lab for all the lessons that they taught me. They made me a better chemist and taught me what it was like to be a part of a lab setting. I will always look back on my time at The University of Cincinnati as the time when I discovered that I wanted to get my Ph.D. and that research is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
Jermon Franklin is from Lexington SC. He will graduate in May of 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. He went to the University of Cincinnati in the summer of 2023; to do research on nanoparticles synthesis for 10 weeks. After graduation he plans on pursuing his PHD in Chemistry; he plans to work for a national laboratory, after he has finished his PHD.