ChemE 6350: The Theology of Colloids

[October 2018]

The actual reason I was in Houston was not, shockingly enough, to see space shuttles and astronaut gloves, but for a conference. A rheology conference. Rheology is the study of the flow of matter, but because it’s a scary science word¹, it often gets “corrected” to theology, as you might have guessed from the title of this post.

Also shocking, more than three dozen people were in attendance at this conference. The conference attracts all the rheologists (not theologists) in the country, including former Cornell ChemE classmates, lab members, and a professor. Due to graduation, all of us are now at different schools, but it was nice to catch up with some familiar faces. My current lab had a few of us in attendance, plus our advisor, another professor and student from the University of Michigan, and one of our collaborators. Besides all these people who I personally knew, there were also professors who I met when I visited Carnegie Mellon, professors whose papers I’ve read, and a couple of those names who everyone in the research area just knows. If you’ve never heard that academia can be a bit incestuous, you’re hearing it now.

The Gerald D. Hines Waterwall park, right next to the mall where we were staying

This particular conference ran from Sunday evening to Thursday morning. The only event on Sunday is a welcome reception which basically turns into all the professors cross-examining each other about research, all the students alternately avoiding/being ignored by their advisors, and everyone eating free food while trying to see who’s there that year. For the next three and a half days, the day begins with a plenary lecture followed by seven hours of talks by students and professors. I presented during the last slot on Tuesday, which wasn’t a terrible time. I had a day at the conference to prepare, time afterwards to relax and listen to other peoples’ talks, and it was so late in the day no one bothered to show up. The talks cover everything from theory to molecular simulations to experimental techniques about polymers, colloids, polyelectrolytes, surfactants, and more.

In the evenings, after the talks are over for the day, the conference plans an event. Monday night was a trip to a local brewery, where we had dinner, got as much beer as we wanted to drink, and received a pint glass with the society’s logo on it. It’s the drinking accessory I never knew I wanted. Tuesday night was the awards banquet. I didn’t attend because it costs extra money and you have to dress up, but I went to the pre-banquet reception because it was open to everyone, I had a drink ticket, and there was free food. Wednesday night was the poster session, also with free food. I’m a fan of this conference for several reasons. One, it’s small enough that it’s not overwhelming, but large enough that you’ll probably be able to find someone else doing semi-relevant work. Two, we went to a brewery. The last time I attended, the conference was held in Baltimore and the social event was at the aquarium. And three, free food (and alcohol). You could almost survive on free food alone if you supplemented with granola bars.

At the brewery (Monday night)

On Thursday, one of my lab mates, my travelling partner, and I left the talks a little early (sorry to anyone still presenting) to wander the mall and get Chick-fil-A before leaving for the airport. At the airport, our basic economy tickets afforded us the opportunity to board with group 4 and sit in the window seats in the very last row, the third-to-last row, and the sixth-to-last row. We had an uneventful flight back, and with that we returned to a cold and dark Ann Arbor. It was a good trip. I fulfilled my graduation requirement of presenting at a national conference, saw some fellow Cornell alumni, had Texas barbeque, went to Space Center Houston, met up with a Cornell friend attending school in Houston, and had fun.

¹Phenolphthalein, a common indicator² used in acid-base titrations, is one of my favorite science-y words to spell because of that “lphth” string in the middle.

²The one that goes from clear to bright pink at a pH of 8.2. It’s often used in freshman general chemistry labs, and no matter how many times the TA reminds everyone to put the indicator in the base before beginning the titration, someone will always forget. Half an hour later, when this student has dumped three gallons of acid into their beaker without witnessing a color change, someone will cautiously bring up the indicator. When a single drop of phenolphthalein is added, the solution will go from clear as a mountain spring to 90s neon windbreaker pink.