Alyssia DeLucia presenting her poster at American Chemical Society National Meeting in NOLA

Over spring break, I presented a poster at the American Chemical Society National Meeting in New Orleans. A few classmates, Phil and Julian, and two professors, Dr. Park and Dr. Patrone, also attended the conference. My poster was a culmination of the research I conducted over the summer at the Georgia Tech Research Experience for Undergraduates program and am currently conducting at Rollins for my senior thesis. Both my thesis and summer research focus on developing sustainable organometallic catalysts for important industrial reactions that currently use catalysts made from precious metals. The conference gave me the opportunity to meet leading scientists in my field and engage in discussion over my research. Spring break was a very hectic week for me, full of traveling from visiting graduate schools, so unfortunately, by the end of the break got laryngitis. Luckily, my voice lasted through the poster session! I was still able to try some world famous New Orleans cuisine, meet up with people, and explore the conference. I had my first (and probably the best I will ever have) bread pudding from Mother’s and then ate a lot of shrimp gumbo to soothe my throat. I had the best nurses (Dr. Patrone and Dr. Park) caring for me. I attended some talks regarding solid state chemistry to see if it would be a field I am interested in. I am thoroughly looking forward to presenting and attending another conference, but this time with my voice!