I’ve kept up with my love for teaching. This past winter, I taught Scientific Writing for the tenth (!) time. I also designed and taught a chemistry tutorial (Ch 101) course called Communicating Chemistry, in which students learned about different media for science communication and practiced them along the way. The class explored public speaking, popular writing, science art, and social media. The projects in the class were designed so students could test out different platforms of science communication with peer feedback and in a low-stakes environment. I also was a teaching assistant for Cosmochemistry with my friend Cam, which was a lot of fun. Perhaps the biggest responsibility was grading problem sets. We went out for coffee every couple of weeks to grade together. That was in the fall 2019 term. I miss those evenings at Starbucks so much.

I became mom to a pre-schooler (and now, soon to be kindergartener)! It is so hard to believe but Güni started pre-school in 2019. He absolutely loved it, which made me so happy (especially since he usually gave me the stickers he got when it was time to go home). His first year of pre-school was cut short because of the pandemic, and he did half a year of online pre-school before we moved east.

Speaking of….

We moved, again. TWICE. We were kicked out of what we thought was going to be our “forever” grad school home about a year into our five-year contract. We got an email letting us know that Caltech intended to sell our building, so we moved at the start of the 2020-2021 academic year. It was frustrating, but we liked the new place, even with its seafoam green tiles in the kitchen.

However, with the pandemic, the tiny apartment wasn’t so great anymore. The bedroom was small such that it could fit our bed and nothing else, so my desk and computer were in the family room. Trying to make progress on a Ph.D. from your kid’s playroom is about as easy as it sounds. So, last December, we moved to the East Coast. The move was a mix of emotions, and the road trip wasn’t what we had wanted it to be. But hey, at least we got G to two new states?

I wrote a book for the American Chemical Society. My favorite part of grad school the last couple of years has been submitting a proposal to write and illustrate a book about astrochemistry. It comes out this month as an e-book! The book is a short introductory/primer text for folks who are interested in diving into astrochemistry or just want to learn more about the field. It takes the reader through 13.8 billion years of (abridged) chemical history, from the formation of the first molecule (the helium hydride ion) to the chemistry of the solar system, including areas of terrestrial chemistry that came forth from investigations into astrochemical problems. I did a bunch of the illustrations, which is something I’m particularly proud of.

In other art news, I painted a mural at the public library in Mechanicsburg. I still need to share the final product, but for now, you can check out this post about my plans for the mural.