Experience at the 2019 American Chemical Society National Meeting

The opportunity to attend the American Chemical Society National Meeting this year as a student was wonderful. It was eye-opening to see the current involvement of chemists in research ranging from food chemistry to drug discovery.

As someone interested in using my undergraduate chemical education to pursue a career in medicine, the talks about some of the inner workings of treatment origins were especially interesting. I also really appreciated the chance to present my research from this past year as a poster to an audience of both my peers and professionals established in their fields. My research was on "Development of an Assay for Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing of Coxiella burnetii."

Presenting was excellent practice communicating ideas and a great look at the collaborative nature of scientific research in real-time. As a graduating senior with a degree in biochemistry, overall, attending the ACS Annual Meeting encouraged thought about lessons learned as an undergrad and my own future applying chemistry to a career.