Back in the lab

Renée examining powdered dolomite at the USC Geochemistry lab (Sept. 2016) (Photo source: author)

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Hi everyone,

Thank you for visiting my new blog! My goal with this blog is to give you all a fuller picture of myself, my interests and my travels. 

I am back in Los Angeles after finishing my summer internship at S.S. Papadopulos & Associates, an environmental consulting firm in Bethesda, Maryland. I had a great time meeting all the staff, learning about cutting-edge groundwater contaminant modeling, and applying all the geochemistry skills I had learned at USC! Some of my responsibilities were researching the toxicology of organic contaminants like perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), and performing basic geochemical modeling on the fate of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in contaminated soil and surface water.

I am currently in Los Angeles because I am back at the University of Southern California (USC) with the goal of turning my Senior Thesis into a paper for publication. My Senior Thesis was titled "The Effect of Heated Vapor Phase Acidification on Organic Carbon Concentrations and Isotopic Values in Geologic Rock Samples" and is available here through the USC Earth Sciences website. My co-authors and I are running more analyses, and I am (slowly but surely!) preparing a draft manuscript. The whole process of preparing a paper for journal submission has been both exciting and frustrating, but all my research and work experiences so far have only strengthened my resolve to enroll in a PhD program and become an independent researcher. 

However, I will soon be leaving Los Angeles to teach English in French Guiana (Guyane en français) for seven months! Guyane is an overseas French Department located in South America. I will be employed by the French Government through the Teaching Assistant Program in France and will be teaching at the high school level in the cities of Matoury and Maripasoula. I am extremely excited to meet les Guyanais, gain fluency in French, and learn more about South American and French culture. So - stay tuned for some exciting posts from Guyane! 

Thanks for reading my first post!

​Renée