Orion Pearce

Rising Senior
Chemistry
Beloit College
CEINT Research Site: Liu Lab, Duke University

CEINT was my first chance to become involved in a serious research endeavor, and served as a great springboard into chemical research. While working in Dr. Liu's lab I gained valuable training, getting to synthesize nanocrystals, use aqua regia, and work in Duke's excellent SMIF facility with the TEM. It was highly gratifying to obtain results after having studied and worked for weeks to get a specific crystalline morphology.

CEINT also was a great opportunity to make friends and contacts who had similar interests. From cookouts prepared by the interns to the weekly lab meetings with my research group, CEINT was full of great opportunities to meet fellow researchers.

Career Impacts and Plans

The people I met at Duke helped me get into a graduate school and provided valuable advice on my career as a researcher. I highly recommend the program to anyone interested in learning more about nanochemistry and starting a serious research career. Graduate school plans: Begin graduate school fall 2013-Chemistry Department, University of Colorado, Boulder.