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Topic: Advice for some summer work  (Read 1905 times)

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HomeOfCandy

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Advice for some summer work
« on: June 06, 2019, 04:26:29 AM »
Hello guys, I am a pharmacy student and I have taken a lot of Organic, Analytical, bio, and Phytochemistry courses also I've taken basic pharmaceutical preparations and quality control and I intend to contain my studies ( doing msc and phd)so I wanted to do a small project ( something like TLC, simple synthesis) for a student.
provided that I have a simple lab with basic chemical materials and apparatus how can I get some ideas for projects?
something that I can put in my CV after my graduation.
Thanks in advance.

Offline Corribus

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Re: Advice for some summer work
« Reply #1 on: June 07, 2019, 12:48:17 PM »
I'm a little confused - you want a project you can do on your own at home that you could list as work experience on your resume?

I'm not out to diminish your enthusiasm, but I do question how valuable an experience like this would on a CV/resume. Certainly for your own enjoyment/interest it is fine, and could even be a nice discussion topic during an interview, but a professional resume or CV is really best populated with more formal training and experiences, and a DIY chemical project at home doesn't really fit the bill. Having reviewed many resumes for hiring students, I can tell you that I personally would put almost zero weight on it. I think you would be better off finding a summer research position at a university or local company. Even if it's just washing glassware and doing lab management stuff, it can be a valuable experience.

But, if I misunderstood your post, please clarify!


What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were like a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?  - Richard P. Feynman

HomeOfCandy

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Re: Advice for some summer work
« Reply #2 on: June 08, 2019, 05:12:53 AM »
I'm a little confused - you want a project you can do on your own at home that you could list as work experience on your resume?

I'm not out to diminish your enthusiasm, but I do question how valuable an experience like this would on a CV/resume. Certainly for your own enjoyment/interest it is fine, and could even be a nice discussion topic during an interview, but a professional resume or CV is really best populated with more formal training and experiences, and a DIY chemical project at home doesn't really fit the bill. Having reviewed many resumes for hiring students, I can tell you that I personally would put almost zero weight on it. I think you would be better off finding a summer research position at a university or local company. Even if it's just washing glassware and doing lab management stuff, it can be a valuable experience.

But, if I misunderstood your post, please clarify!
OMG, I am sorry for this misunderstanding, of course I don't have a lab at my home.
The lab is in a factory for veterinary products and it's designed mainly for quality control.
And there are no available research projects in my university.

Offline Enthalpy

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Re: Advice for some summer work
« Reply #3 on: July 24, 2019, 01:35:56 PM »
If I got it properly: make simple research, on spare time, accessing a lab.

Take pure n-alkanes: for instance pentane to decane. freeze them with liquid nitrogen, measure accurately the density at 77K. Check if any odd-even effect exists on the solid density at identical temperature.

We need alkanes with a very wide liquid range as computer cooling fluids, transformer oil, airliner hydraulic fluid...
https://www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?topic=56069
One strategy would take a jerrycan of petrol distillate like heating oil, then successively distil and freeze the candidates until the remaining mixture stays liquid from, say, -100°C to +240°C. If enough liquid is obtained that way, it can be the industrial process. If not, analyse to tell what molecules (and possibly categories of molecules, but that's badly difficult) are interesting for future synthesis.

Synthesize diazetidylcyclopropane, say from dibromocyclopropane and azetidine
https://www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?topic=86972.0
tell how easily this runs, what are the melting point, boiling point, density, flash point.

Does that fit the difficulty and equipment?

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