During my sophomore year in High School I was looking through a bookshelf in study hall class where I stumbled upon a chemistry book, I had always loved science and so I asked my teacher if I could bring it home with me to examine and read. As I opened that book my passion for chemistry was ignited. As I read through the book and researched the brilliant and innovative work of research chemists I knew that chemistry was my future. After Graduating High school I enrolled in McNeese State University and majored in chemistry and after 7 semesters of challenging classes and research experiences I am applying to pursue a PhD in chemistry.
I am applying to LSU because the innovative research being done by faculty and graduate students along with the atmosphere of the department. Last summer I was accepted into the Louisiana Biomedical Research Network and had the opportunity to work with a
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My project stemmed from an older project that involved the catalytic oxidation of alkenes with oxygen to form aldehydes. My project was to test for catalytic activity by mixing various metals (in a salt compound) with different ligands to determine if the mixture, when mixed with an alkene, could induce oxidative cleavage of the alkene. The results did not indicate that the reactions were catalytic but that further testing could be done. Although the results of the experiment were not successful it is important to learn that as scientists our experiments will not always yield the desired results, In addition to this I learned about how some of the other projects that took place with Dr. Stanley’s lab took years to complete and that the results often differed than the expected outcome. Working with his graduate students taught me that being a graduate student can be very challenging but also very exciting as you have the opportunity to make discoveries and contribute to body of