Image generated by AI
We experiment with seminars, too!
What happens when you present experts' own work back to them?
That is the idea behind the Inverse Seminar. I helped organize this unconventional seminar format, in which researchers present an expert's work back to the expert, reversing the traditional flow of a scientific talk.
It reveals what papers don't tell you.
Me at a Black Girls Code event at UCLA
It is always rewarding to be part of mentoring and to witness those “aha!” moments when a young student suddenly sees something click.
.jpg)
This is a picture of me holding a piece of polyaniline coated gauze.
At the initial stage of the pandemic, I was deeply moved by the fearlessness and sacrifices of numerous ordinary heroes when facing such great uncertainty and threat. It is the spirit of them that inspired me to start investigating materials solutions for public health, to figure out what can be done by physical scientists and engineers.
I learned from this experience that all problems have solutions, some are just waiting to be created or discovered.
I was trying to make a macroscopic bunny using microscopic graphene oxide sheets. It didn't work out well as you can see there are many cracks on the surface. But I enjoyed this experiment because if anyone asks me what I am doing in the lab, I can say, "Well, I am playing doughs."
Later I observed an interesting phenomenon during playing of doughs, which led to an exciting discovery about self-crosslinking reactions of graphene oxide sheets. Lucky me!
This is an optical microscope image of acidic droplets on a detector screen made of polyaniline. It took us many efforts to visualize them. We started with some stupid ideas, like using pH papers. Of course, it didn't work. But I was grateful for having these stupid ideas because they have given me the courage to try anything that sounds even more stupid.
We worked as essential workers during Northwestern campus lockdown. It was an unusual and precious experience for me. From left to right: Prof. Jiaxing Huang, myself, Dr. Murat Kadir, Dr. Zhilong Yu, Dr. Hun Park.