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Last Day of 'Work' in Melbourne
Today I moved out of the Graduate House after packing everything I own here in Australia. After moving out, I dragged all of my stuff a few kilometers down the road to a hotel in the CBD of Melbourne. Luckily, the weather was pretty nice outside, but it is amazing how much farther away things seem when you're carrying probably close to 75 lbs of stuff... Anyhow, I made it to the hotel just fine and left the bulk of my luggage with the desk so that I could make my way back up to the university for one final day.
I spent most of the day doing admin things to make sure that everything is in order since the next few days will be a little crazy with living in hotels and then the eventual flight back to the U.S. I had a lunch meeting scheduled with Trevor Finlayson (retired professor in physics). I had met Trevor via Anita in New Zealand at the Wagga conference. He had suggested that we get lunch at some point at the University. So, nothing like doing these things on the last day! Anyhow, we went to have lunch at the University Club. They don't really seem to have these sorts of the things in the U.S. The University Club is really a 'country club' of sorts and only members and their guests are allowed in. In any case, it was a nice place and a very nice looking building. It was a little awkward at first because I couldn't remember what Trevor looked like, so I was hoping he would recognize me. Luckily he did and I recognized him once I saw him. It was also a bit awkward with figuring out how lunch was being paid for. I paid for my own lunch - which was fine - but sometimes situations like that can be a bit uncomfortable when you aren't really sure what is going on. In any case, we had a nice lunch (great calamari, salad, and bread). We talked for a while and I enjoyed listening to his perspectives on graduate school. In particular, we talked a lot about the differences between pure science and engineering. It was very interesting and I learned a lot. I didn't realize it, but apparently Flame Atomic Adsorption (Flame AA) - a very common analytical tool in chemistry labs - was actually developed at CSIRO in Australia. Eventually, Varian (the current manufacturer) bought out the technology and their spectrometers are still produced here in Australia (just outside of Melbourne. I have certainly heard of Varian and Flame AA, so this was pretty cool to hear that it was developed and discovered at CSIRO. Apparently, Trevor and his group also worked quite a bit on perfecting some of the solid-state physics surrounding the operation of the Flame AA lamps - very cool indeed!
After lunch, I finished things up back at the University. I met with another professor in the chemical engineering department. A synthetic polymer chemist by training, we talked a lot about different polymers and block copolymer morphologies. He was a bit of an intense conversationalist, so it was a fun and lively conversation to say the least! After our conversation, I took one last trip around the campus before heading back down to the hotel for the evening. I spent the early portion of the evening walking through the Fitzroy Gardens. It was a great evening and the weather was just perfect. Afterward, I walked around the city for a while until I settled on a place to have dinner. I think I'll finish off the evening by just relaxing and watching TV.
I am hopeful that the work that we did at the University of Melbourne will turn out to be useful. I am still in the process of analyzing the data (and looking at lots of AFM pictures). Hopefully, we will be able to make some sense out of it. I felt like the visit at the university was a bit short - but I accomplished what I had hoped to accomplish. So, I believe it should be considered successful.
Today I moved out of the Graduate House after packing everything I own here in Australia. After moving out, I dragged all of my stuff a few kilometers down the road to a hotel in the CBD of Melbourne. Luckily, the weather was pretty nice outside, but it is amazing how much farther away things seem when you're carrying probably close to 75 lbs of stuff... Anyhow, I made it to the hotel just fine and left the bulk of my luggage with the desk so that I could make my way back up to the university for one final day.
I spent most of the day doing admin things to make sure that everything is in order since the next few days will be a little crazy with living in hotels and then the eventual flight back to the U.S. I had a lunch meeting scheduled with Trevor Finlayson (retired professor in physics). I had met Trevor via Anita in New Zealand at the Wagga conference. He had suggested that we get lunch at some point at the University. So, nothing like doing these things on the last day! Anyhow, we went to have lunch at the University Club. They don't really seem to have these sorts of the things in the U.S. The University Club is really a 'country club' of sorts and only members and their guests are allowed in. In any case, it was a nice place and a very nice looking building. It was a little awkward at first because I couldn't remember what Trevor looked like, so I was hoping he would recognize me. Luckily he did and I recognized him once I saw him. It was also a bit awkward with figuring out how lunch was being paid for. I paid for my own lunch - which was fine - but sometimes situations like that can be a bit uncomfortable when you aren't really sure what is going on. In any case, we had a nice lunch (great calamari, salad, and bread). We talked for a while and I enjoyed listening to his perspectives on graduate school. In particular, we talked a lot about the differences between pure science and engineering. It was very interesting and I learned a lot. I didn't realize it, but apparently Flame Atomic Adsorption (Flame AA) - a very common analytical tool in chemistry labs - was actually developed at CSIRO in Australia. Eventually, Varian (the current manufacturer) bought out the technology and their spectrometers are still produced here in Australia (just outside of Melbourne. I have certainly heard of Varian and Flame AA, so this was pretty cool to hear that it was developed and discovered at CSIRO. Apparently, Trevor and his group also worked quite a bit on perfecting some of the solid-state physics surrounding the operation of the Flame AA lamps - very cool indeed!
After lunch, I finished things up back at the University. I met with another professor in the chemical engineering department. A synthetic polymer chemist by training, we talked a lot about different polymers and block copolymer morphologies. He was a bit of an intense conversationalist, so it was a fun and lively conversation to say the least! After our conversation, I took one last trip around the campus before heading back down to the hotel for the evening. I spent the early portion of the evening walking through the Fitzroy Gardens. It was a great evening and the weather was just perfect. Afterward, I walked around the city for a while until I settled on a place to have dinner. I think I'll finish off the evening by just relaxing and watching TV.
I am hopeful that the work that we did at the University of Melbourne will turn out to be useful. I am still in the process of analyzing the data (and looking at lots of AFM pictures). Hopefully, we will be able to make some sense out of it. I felt like the visit at the university was a bit short - but I accomplished what I had hoped to accomplish. So, I believe it should be considered successful.
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