Attending the ACS National Conference also granted me the opportunity to present my poster from the REU I participated in last summer at the University of Michigan. The poster session allowed me to further mature my science communication skills as I was required to explain complex information to a wide audience. However, the audience was also largely comprised of other medicinal chemists, which allowed the dialogue to also include challenging questions and collegial suggestions. Because of the size of the conference, there were also well-known researchers in attendance and I was able to meet some of them as they stopped at my poster. As a result, I was able to obtain advice on graduate school from them and attempt to impress potential research mentors.

There were not only respected professors from large research institutions, but there were also several attendees from pharmaceutical companies, which provided me a chance to speak with chemists in industry. I am relatively sure that my future lies in academia, but I am still intrigued by the work done in industry, so a conversation with those working at pharmaceutical companies was a useful experience.

I am hopeful that at the next Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society (SAACS) meeting on campus, I will be able to share my experience with my fellow chemistry majors and impart some knowledge and wisdom on the underclassmen that have not yet had the opportunity to present at a poster session.