AFM and the University of Melbourne

This week is already shaping up to be quite busy! This morning was my first day at the University of Melbourne. Interestingly enough, it was also the first day of the fall term at U of M. So, I made my way to the chemical engineering building prior to my 9am meeting with Dr. Sandra Kentish while passing several dazed and confused freshmen. Most of them held maps - probably trying to find their way to their first college class. It made me think about my first day of college. I think my situation was a bit different in that I had already been at Penn State for a week participating in Blue Band camp getting ready for the season. That definitely helped as far as meeting people and learning where things were on campus. In any case, it is always nice to see that some things don't change regardless of where you go (even including sidewalk evangelists - common to college campuses - handing out their prayer books and spreading their message).

My meeting with Sandra went well and I also met the post-doc, Judy, who I will be working with. I was assigned a desk in the visiting professor's office (complete with windows and all!). However, after the meeting, I had to bolt back to CSIRO for a hit-and-run visit to pick up my samples (I hadn't thought about bringing them back with me before I left on my most recent trip). It was a bit inconvenient since it took about an hour each way to get to CSIRO just to pick up samples, but it was necessary. When I got to CSIRO I had the chance to stop in and say hi to Anita. She will leave for the U.S. tomorrow and I could tell that she is quite frazzled about that. I gathered my samples and quickly met with Cara to discuss experimental plans and the schedule for the coming week. I still have a few things to do at CSIRO and it will probably be a bit difficult to balance that and my time at the University of Melbourne. In any case, I'm sure it will all work out.

After I returned to the U of M and grabbed lunch, I started on atomic force microscopy (AFM) with Judy. We started by preparing samples and getting ready to measure the surface characteristics of my polymer samples. I also had the chance to tour the labs and meet other group members. The lab is definitely smaller and somewhat less established than our operations at UT or the lab at CSIRO, but this makes sense since Sandra has only been working in membranes for a few years. In any case, there should be opportunities for me to help them get their equipment up and running.

The AFM is really kind of annoying to run. Loading samples and getting ready to take data isn't too bad, but there are a lot of control parameters and force/frequency settings that need to be adjusted. Apparently, Judy is learning too, so we both tried to make our way through the process of obtaining decent looking images. It's not as easy as those flashy nanoscience papers make it look...

After work, I came back to the Graduate House (just a walk across the street). I did some work and caught up on e-mail from the day. I also tried to fix my schedule for the week since I will likely be going out to Werribee later this week to give a seminar to Mikel Duke's group at Victoria University. I also need to figure out when I will fit the CSIRO commitments in. As I said in the beginning, it will probably be a long and busy week, but things should work out okay!