Anastasia Gangadin
Class of 2005 - Present
Horace Mann H.S.
Topic: 2006 - Humoral Rejection in Allografts and Gene Expression
Presentation (ppt)
Research abstract (pdf)
Topic: Surface Enhanced Roman Spectroscopy of Histidine on an Electrochemically Prepared Silver Surface
Research paper (pdf)
Presentation (Powerpoint)
About:
Science has always been a great passion of mine. For as long as I can remember, math and science were my only interests. I always was the first one in class to have the answer to a math problem or the first one to explain the process of mitosis or how the heart works. When I reached High School, the work got more rigorous. This only heightened my interest. I had enrolled in an elective class, Science Research, headed by the head of our Chemistry Department, Dr. Frances Pearlmutter. During the year, the very small class (almost 3 of us in regular attendance, 5 honor members) worked on individual projects. My project was the study of Cryonics on Fast Plants. At the end of the summer, my teacher had insisted on us all getting internships for the summer.
Being an intern was something I was looking forward to for a very long time, since perhaps 5th grade, when I learned that there were such opportunities. However, I felt left out, because I was very young for most internships. Of course, intellectually I met and exceeded their requirements, but because of my age, I could not apply for most. Then, one day, my teacher called me to her office and told me about the Harlem Children Society, Project Seed, and it's affiliation with the American Chemical Society. As soon as I had heard that I had the opportunity to work in a genuine lab with professionals, I was very eager to meet Dr. Bhattacharya. I had had one day off that week from my usual classes, so Dr. Bhattacharya invited me to his office/laboratory for an interview in early February. During that interview, He and I talked extensively about my cryonics experiment. We talked about my Biology, and Chemistry classes, and what I was covering in them. A few weeks later, I had gotten a call from Dr. Bhattacharya saying that I was accepted, and that he would get back to me on who my mentor would be.
I was so excited, words could not even describe my feeling after that call. Finally, I was not doing just a meaningless class lesson. In our class labs, we did things such as running gels of sickle cells, dissections of pigs and rabbits, and proving the gas laws. I enjoyed these labs, but, there was always something in the back of my head which told me that these were unimportant experiments: they were just there to teach students lessons and to reinforce what we had learned that week. In a laboratory, however I would work on experiments that would have meaning: they would matter to people, it was a real life situation, not some high school lab.
Dr. Bhattacharya called a few weeks later, and told me I would be working at the City University of New York with Dr. Ronald Birke, a Chemistry professor. I was excited, and asked Dr. Bhattacharya what did Dr. Birke study? Dr. Bhattacharya told me, "Spectroscopy." I was confused. I was a biology person. Dissecting, running gels, these were my interests: but electrochemistry? Then I was nervous about my internship. What did I know about lasers and spectroscopy? A few infrared spectroscopy experiments were all that I had done in Chemistry that school year; other than that, I had no knowledge of electrochemistry. Dr. Bhattacharya assured me that I would like it, and to try it out. I was still apprehensive about the whole situation.
When I started my work at City College, I was almost lost the first week. My mentor tied to give me a course in electrochemistry and physics, but I just couldn’t absorb it as well as I could facts about blood and the Human Body. Then, he decided to put me to work on obtaining Surface Enhanced Raman Spectrums of various substances, such as sulfur, and pyridine, and our ultimate experiment, Histidine. At night, he would send me home with perhaps 4 or 5 journal articles about Raman Spectroscopy. After a week of working the lasers myself, making electrodes, running spectrums, and analyzing them, I had finally learned everything that he and my chemistry teachers had tried to drill into me. Raman Spectroscopy concentrated on a molecule and it's energy potential sand states at any given frequency. It measured changes in energy levels, and used these differences to create structures of the substance, propose orientations, and to identify characteristics of that specific molecule. I finally understood a molecule and it's vibrations, it's energy states, electrochemical potential, oxidation reductions, and most importantly, I learned a great deal about Spectroscopy.
I realized that for a long time, I had confined myself to Biology, and had turned myself off to chemistry and physics. I had never been interested in physics or Chemistry. Actually, for my junior year, when the next standard course would be Physics, I had not even put Physics down for a course which I wanted to take: instead, I elected to take Biotechnology of Human Genetics. In senior year, I was planning on taking either Advanced Placement Biology or Experimental Biology. Now, I am petitioning my Dean to allow me 2 science courses, Advanced Placement Biology and Experimental Chemistry for my senior year. I had never expected that I would not only understand Chemistry and Physics, but I would also grow to like it! When I had met with my Chemistry Teacher and Dr. Pearlmutter, they were surprised at how much I had learned this summer. My chemistry teacher told me to thank my mentor for teaching me the same chemistry in 8 weeks that he had tried to teach me and get me interested in for 8 months. I knew I had Definitely made an impression on all of my Science teachers and I knew I had learned an unimaginable amount of information this summer that I knew could never be matched by any science course at my high School. The people I met at work, the instruments I used, the environment in which I was, I knew, I could never receive those anywhere.
Twice every week, on Monday Mornings and Friday Afternoons, Dr. Bhattacharya and his students would all come together at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for our lectures. I came to love these and look forward to them. They were the absolute high points of my week. Dr. Bhattacharya would invite colleagues to these seminars and they would give a lecture on their field. One presentation I remember well is on HIV/AIDS mostly because it was about viruses and human blood. I loved to listen to these lectures because they were by real doctors and scientists, who, unlike our teachers, were not reciting facts that they had read in an oversized textbook. This was their specialty, their research, their own personal studies. It made science so real, and made me realize how rigorous it was.
I realized, I would have loved to be one of those scientists. An actual doctor, scientist, doing real life work which affected real people, not just some lab paper that I had to turn in else I would get an 'F' for the assignment. That was what drew me in the most: this, all of this research was real. It had actual meaning to people. That is why I loved it. Interning this summer made me realize that this is really what I wanted to do with my life. I want to work in science. I have always wanted to be a Surgeon, in either Neurology or Cardiology. Now I am very sure that that is what I want to do with my life. But, at the same time, I am glad that I had the opportunity to expand my horizon onto other fields, besides the standard biology. The experience I gained, and the knowledge I acquired this summer I consider invaluable and I am indebted to dr. Bhattacharya and Dr. Birke For allowing me such an opportunity. I know that when I go to college, I will have an advantage and experience which I am sure no other peer will have had. This will be my junior year, the year most people agree counts the most in High School: I know that I will be going into it more knowledgeable and intelligent than if I had not had this opportunity with Dr. Bhattacharya and Dr. Birke.