First Day at CSIRO

My first day at CSIRO began at 7am when my alarm went off. I was picked up by Dr. Matt Hill at 8am from the Graduate House and we proceeded to drive to Clayton. Matt and I had some good conversation about the differences between the U.S. and Australia (particularly relating the usage of slang in both countries). Upon arrival to CSIRO, Matt showed me around the labs which include 2 PALS labs for Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy work, 2 sample prep labs and a few other support labs. We also looked at some of the other facilities in the group including the NMR facility and the SEM/TEM facility.

I also met two other CSIRO staff members, Matt Lay and Diana. We went over the student union at Monash University to get coffee and then I came back for my safety training (or safety induction as they call it here). The safety training was interesting. CSIRO is the national lab of Australia and it is surprisingly similar to industry in terms of how overboard they go on safety. The lady showing us around took about 10 minutes to dig through a drawer of safety glasses before she was satisfied that I had safety glasses that properly fit my face (I guess I have an odd shaped face?).

After the safety orientation, I met up with Anita (and witnessed the organizational system she uses in her office for the first time) and we began work in the PALS lab. The experimental procedures are not exceedingly difficult, but it is a little different to be working with radioactive substances. In order to run a PALS experiment, we sandwich a radioactive sodium salt source between two sides of the polymer sample that we wish to probe. The radioactive source emits positrons (antimatter) into the sample (on either side of the source). The ‘sandwich’ is wrapped in aluminum foil and placed between two detectors. The detectors (and their complicated electronics) measure the difference in time between emission of a positron and annihilation of a positron. When a positron is created by the source, it emits energy at a specific frequency. Likewise, when the positron annihilates (matter-antimatter reaction) it emits energy at a different wavelength. The system is designed to measure the difference in time between these two events and the computer system plots the results in a statistical histogram to display millions of matter-antimatter reactions. The observed positron ‘lifetime’ can be related to the size of a free-volume element within the sample and the intensity of matter-antimatter reactions gives information about the concentration of free-volume elements within the sample.

In principle, the experiment relies on the very same physical phenomenon that is responsible for generating power in the Star Trek shows and movies. There, matter-antimatter reactions are used in large quantities to generate an enormous amount of energy. Here, we are working on a much smaller (but still cool) scale. This is certainly the type of work where you wash your hands both before and after using the bathroom.

I had lunch with Anita, Tim Bastow (world-renown NMR expert, among other things), and another friend of Anita’s. We went to the Monash Student Union and I had a good meal of Mongolian lamb with salad and rice. It was also fun to be able to have a beer with lunch and not have anybody think anything strange of it. It was great to finally have a meal that had a decent salad/vegetable portion. Lunch was really good and we had coffee for dessert. Following lunch, I worked on more samples and also started doing some sample analysis.

I am glad that CSIRO has air conditioning, because the temperature today reached 43 degrees Celsius – very hot. Apparently, I brought the Texas heat with me because temperatures have been significantly hotter than usual over the last few days. Walking outside was definitely uncomfortable (even for my Texas standards). I thought it was interesting though that at each exit of the CSIRO building they have a sunscreen dispenser. Apparently the hole in the ozone layer is a decent problem here (I hadn’t really considered this before).

After work, I rode with Tim and Anita to Hawthorn and Anita invited me over to her house for dinner. Her house is a very nice older house that had a very warm homey feeling to it. We had a great dinner of salmon, salad, and roasted vegetables. It was great to have the opportunity to just sit and talk for a while. I really enjoyed the conversation and I really appreciate Anita’s advice and hospitality.

After dinner, she walked me to the train station and I took the train and then a tram back to the Graduate House. It was pretty easy to take the train and the tram and I think that will be a good way to get between CSIRO and the Graduate House in the future.

I got back to my room and found it to be unbelievably hot. I tried to open the window and use the fan, but it was really pretty bad. I took a quick, cold shower before bed and tried to get some sleep in my room without air conditioning. Unfortunately, the heat made it very difficult to do so.