In the winter of 2020, I joined the Amanchukwu Lab. Our lab space just opened at the end of Winter Quarter, so I was only able to see the lab for a couple days before it closed due to COVID. During Spring Quarter, I did a lot of remote work for the lab but was very excited to be welcomed back to the physical space over the summer!
Given the current circumstances, we are taking a lot of precautions and making sure that we are being very careful. Curious what a typical day in my lab looks like? Here’s my Monday summer schedule:
8:30 am: Wake up, pack my lunch, check to make sure I’m feeling healthy and good, and then jump on a Divvy bike to ride to my lab.
9:00 am: When entering the building where my lab is housed, I make sure my mask is secure, get some hand sanitizer from the station by the entrance, and then enter the elevator for the sixth floor. Some days I have to wait a bit because the new policy is that only one person can be in an elevator car at a time.
9:10 am: Drop off my lunch in our refrigerator outside the lab and then let myself in. Normally the first thing I do when I enter the lab is head to my little corner in our office where I will plug in my computer and write a list of tasks on my whiteboard about what I want to accomplish for the day. I also have to make sure to “check-in” on an online Google Form for contact tracing purposes.
9:30 am: The work I’m doing involves the design of immiscible electrolytes for lithium-based batteries. I throw on my lab coat, grab my notebook, and head to the glovebox. I check on my electrolytes and notice that most of the salt has dissolved in some of the vials. I quickly run some calculations on an Excel spreadsheet and then go into the glovebox to increase the salt concentration. When I am using the glovebox, I put on small gloves first, enter the glovebox with the black glovebox gloves, and then also put on size large gloves—three layers!
10:00 am: After checking on my own experiment, I return to my office where I do some reading as I wait for the experiments I am running to finish. I check in with Priya, one of our grad students, and she tells me that she would like my help later in the day with making coin cells. It’s fun to help her out since my own project is still in its early stages right now.
10:30 am: I head back to my glovebox and do some more small fixes.
11:00 am: I check in with my principal investigator (PI) and he recommends I check out this new paper he found about a novel procedure. He outlines a few things on the whiteboard and talks me through this potential new project. I head back to the office to check it out.
11:30 am: Priya calls me over and we head to the battery testing room where she shows me the impedance scans from the coin cells we had made and tested the day the Friday before. While I had been trained in how to do impedance over Zoom during Spring Quarter, it’s great to get a refresher in person and also to see that one of the coin cells I made is giving us data!
12:00 am: I head back to the office where I work on my presentation. We have a general meeting over Zoom later in the day where all the researchers—grads and undergrads—will present their findings from the past week and upcoming plans for their projects. I need to update my PowerPoint from the week before and include information about the new paper that my PI had mentioned.
1:00 pm: I head outside to our balcony to eat lunch. I admire the view from our location on the 6th floor and also try to avoid the falcon that has a nest on the roof of the building next door. He likes to “attack” us when we are out on the balcony eating.
1:30 pm: I head back inside and make a couple coin cells with Priya. We go into the battery testing room and run new impedance.
2:15 pm: I do the final checks of my own experiment and prep materials so that I will be ready to go in the morning. I add some final touches to my PowerPoint presentation, and it is all set.
3:00 pm: I check out on the Google Form and head out of the building so I can make it home before our general meeting. I much prefer doing my Zoom presentation from my apartment.
3:30 pm: I have an hour and a half to “kill” before our meeting, which I use to work on some Uncommon Blog posts ????
5:00 pm: I jump on the Zoom meeting with the rest of my lab. Each of us shares our presentation and asks questions/gives ideas. It’s a great space to learn about each other’s projects as well as get any helpful advice on our own. One of the grad students tells me that he will walk me through how to use one of the instruments in our lab tomorrow so I can get more precise data. I am excited.
6:30 pm: Our meeting is finished, and I have the whole rest of the week ahead of me. It’s time to put the computer away for the day and press pause on the research—I know I’ll be starting it all over again the next morning!