›
To take part in discussions on talkSFU, please apply for membership (SFU email id required).

Nuclear Chemist at work

NukeChem
edited August 2009 in General
That's me :smile:

I seem to be the old fart of the group, being 30 years old (almost 31! :omg: ) and a graduate student in the Chemistry department. I currently TA CHEM 126, and am taking graduate courses for my Master's Degree.

So what do I do in my spare time? Computer geekdom. :) That, and I read, be it fiction or non-, although I don't read horror. My brain likes being able to sleep at night. :tongue:

Random facts:

1. My car is a Ford LTD Crown Victoria, which I almost never drive because it eats gas like nobody's business.
2. I actually DON'T like organic chemistry.
3. Given a choice between a dentist's appointment and a math course I'd probably take the dentist's appointment. :confused:

Comments

  • Smartso
    edited November 2006
    So your really a nuclear chemist...like Homer?
  • NukeChem
    edited November 2006
    Rest assured I don't have a box of donuts next to my work station. :P
  • NukeChem
    edited August 2008
    An overdue re-hello to all. I'm now 32, will be TAing 126 again, still have the damn car, haven't driven it in a year and a half or more, and will be defending my Master's thesis sometime in the Fall.

    :teeth:
  • blackhat
    edited August 2008
    Hey man, nice to have you back. Good luck on the defense!
  • peter8912
    edited August 2008
    NukeChem;35831 said:
    defending my Master's thesis sometime in the Fall.

    :teeth:
    with a sword and a shield? I heard the thesis' weakness lies in the heart of the problem. G'luck old chum
  • JayDub
    edited October 2008
    You should tell us when it is so we can all come out and one of us will have a giant "D" and another one of us will have a picket fence. Then we will start a D-FENCE chant.
  • Hope_2016Hope_2016
    edited December 2008
    NukeChem;2381 said:
    That's me :smile:

    I seem to be the old fart of the group, being 30 years old (almost 31! :omg: ) and a graduate student in the Chemistry department. I currently TA CHEM 126, and am taking graduate courses for my Master's Degree.

    So what do I do in my spare time? Computer geekdom. :) That, and I read, be it fiction or non-, although I don't read horror. My brain likes being able to sleep at night. :tongue:

    Random facts:

    1. My car is a Ford LTD Crown Victoria, which I almost never drive because it eats gas like nobody's business.
    2. I actually DON'T like organic chemistry.
    3. Given a choice between a dentist's appointment and a math course I'd probably take the dentist's appointment. :confused:
    Sir Nuke, can you tell me more about the Nuclear Chem program. I am really interested in it, sooner or later I may join it. Please advice and the work load etc
    Thanks,
  • NukeChem
    edited December 2008
    Eh, that's pretty straightforward. If you're a chemistry, physics or biology major you'll have the most success in the minor program because it does require a science background.

    NUSC 341 is sometimes a required course for other minors, so it has the most people in it and is the most generally focussed. But it still takes some getting used to in order to wrap one's minds around certain concepts, like the essentially statistical nature of radioactive decay, and that you're dealing with nuclear-level phenomena (but analogies to atomic phenomena do prove useful).

    NUSC 342/344 are more challenging and I suggest that you have a decent grasp on at least the concepts if not the mathematics behind quantum mechanics. A person I tutored in NUSC had a lot of trouble with aspects of the course because that person didn't even have CHEM 260 or PHYS 285.

    NUSC 346 forces you to really have your lab technique down cold. Rubber gloves, fume hood, the works. If you're used to just accidentally getting benzene on your hands and shrugging that off, in 346 you work like a proper chemist with a paranoid grasp on safety procedures. :P

    There's a grab-bag of other courses you can take to complete the minor. If you're masochistic you can complete it with PHYS 485, which is the mathematical version of PHYS 380, which in turn is a survey of quantum electrodynamics, weak interactions, and quantum chromodynamics.

    Have fun.
  • PhilBPhilB
    edited December 2008
    NukeChem;2381 said:
    That's me :smile:

    I seem to be the old fart of the group, being 30 years old (almost 31! :omg: )
    I got you beat (even with the update that you're now 32).

    Phil...the old pharte...
  • JayDub
    edited December 2008
    You two can talk about the days of old when you were youngins and you had to walk to school uphill, in two feet of snow, in your barefeet.
  • PhilBPhilB
    edited December 2008
    JayDub;42918 said:
    You two can talk about the days of old when you were youngins and you had to walk to school uphill, in two feet of snow, in your barefeet.
    Both ways. Over broken glass.

    Phil
  • JayDub
    edited December 2008
    Except you're from Montreal, the snow story isn't made up.
  • NukeChem
    edited December 2008
    PhilB;42948 said:
    Both ways. Over broken glass.

    Phil
    Over splinters of wood. Just to add to the drama. :tongue:
  • NukeChem
    edited August 2009
    Hello again to all.

    After an absence of something like six-seven months, I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack.

    I thought I'd be defending ages ago, and apparently... didn't. Long story.

    The short of it is I have finally completed my thesis work to the rigorous requirements of my supervisor and I'm ready to dive into the maze of paperwork and sweating bullets that is the submission and eventual defence, which should be in September.

    So with THAT load off my back, *waves hello* and how've you all been?
  • Hope_2016Hope_2016
    edited August 2009
    I guess everyone is doing great. Welcome back friend. We hope that you succeed in your thesis defense...all the best!

Leave a Comment