Welcome to the Research Group

• To Do List (for new group members)
• Waste Disposal
• Poster Creation & Presentation
• Senior Thesis Writing

• Lab Safety Rules (mandatory for all)
• Procedures and Instructions
• Powerpoint Presentation & Delivery
• Other resources

New members to the group should print out and complete the items on this list:

___Obtain keys from JSD's building coordinator, Mr. Detlef Ott. Mr. Ott is located in room B04/B05 (take the west wing elevator down to the basement, turn right out of the elevator, walk to the room at the end of the hall, enter the room (B04) and immediately turn right to find his office). Tell Mr. Ott that you are doing research with Dr. Poon and need the following key(s):

1) Key to the lab - KSC 229

2) Key to the NMR room - KSC 220 (optional)

3) Key to the Instrument Room - KSC 238 (optional)

___While you are in the basement storeroom, ask Mr. Ott to show you where the lab coats are and how to check one out for personal use. There are also disposable lab coats if you do not want to worry about laundry.

___Read these guidelines/rules for key ownership.

1) You may not give or lend your key(s) to anyone.

2) Do not try your key in other external building doors. All keys open only one door to the building, the northernmost courtyard entrance door.

3) If you are the last person to leave a room, you must shut its door and make sure it is locked (even if you will return very shortly). We have had recent thefts of equipment and personal items that occurred because doors were left open.

___Obtain an official lab notebook, goggles and lab drawer assignment from Dr. Poon. Lab notebooks must remain on campus. Goggles must be worn at all times when you are doing research or are in a room when others are doing research.

___Provide Dr. Poon (via e-mail) with the following information:

1) Your cell phone and/or dorm room tel. number.

2) Your campus address (or off campus address if living off campus).

3) Name and tel. number of a family member to contact in case of emergency.

4) Your complete schedule for the semester, including times that you plan to do research, work times and other regularly scheduled activities.

___Read the research papers that Dr. Poon gave you. Also, all group members are responsible for reading the following two papers and for being prepared (at any time) to give a 5-minute group meeting presentation on either paper:

1) Nicholas J. Turro, "Paradigms Lost and Paradigms Found: Examples of Science Extraordinary and Science Pathological - And How To Tell the Difference," Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2000, 39, 2255-2259.

2) J. R. Platt, "Strong Inference", Science, 1964, 146, 347-353.

Attention to lab safety is the most important skill that any bench chemist can acquire. Your health, even your life, depends on your adherence to safe laboratory practice. The following major accidents have happened to people I personally know. None of these researchers were deliberately being unsafe or horsing around, but in almost every case, the accident could have been avoided.

• a student spilled approx. 100 mL of conc. sulfuric acid on his pants,
• a student had piranha solution (30% H₂O₂, 70% H₂SO₄) splash on his face (fortunately he had his goggles on),
• a student had an NMR tube explode while he was looking into it (in this case, the student was not wearing goggles and had glass shards embedded in his eye),
• a large scale reaction exploded when a student moved the glass shield of a fume hood,
• a broken piece of glassware sliced through a professor's hand, requiring several stitches,
• a rotovap imploded when a student squirted acetone on the condensing vessel (he wanted to remove the frost that had developed so he could see what was happening inside),
• a syringe needle went straight through a professor's finger as he was trying to place the safety cap on it,
• a lab was flooded when the tubing came off a condenser during an overnight reflux reaction.

Fortunately, all of the people mentioned above survived their accidents and none were permanently disabled. Many incidents have been reported; however, where chemists have not been so lucky (please read this article on one such case, which happened to a graduate from the Claremont Colleges). In order to avoid accidents such as these, every researcher in this group should always have an eye toward safety when working in the lab. There are many resources available that detail laboratory safety. One such resource is called the Laboratory Safety Manual (from the Princeton Univ.). It is a long read, but I guarantee that you will benefit from reading it. Dr. Poon has established the following 5 golden rules of safety for the group. All students in the group must memorize and abide by these 5 rules at all times. A violation of any of these rules will result in a reduction in your thesis or independent study grade and/or expulsion from the research group.

The 5 Golden Rules for Safety in the Poon Group

1. Avoid exposure to all chemicals. Never allow chemicals to come in contact with skin or other organs of the body. Follow this rule by:

Wearing safety goggles and flame resistant lab coats whenever you are doing research or in the presence of anyone doing research (eyeglass wearers must wear safety goggles over their glasses).

Wearing gloves when handling chemicals.

Wearing appropriate clothing and shoes.

Working in the hood with all potentially harmful chemicals.

2. Never work in the lab unless a JSD professor is around when you are doing so and unless he or she has been informed that you are conducting research.

3. Get approval or supervision from Dr. Poon when doing any procedure for the first time. If you don't know, ask.

4. Be prepared for accidents. Know the location and operation of all safety devices such as eyewashes, showers, fire blankets, fire extinguishers, first aid kits, exits, etc.

5. It is your responsibility to see that any unsafe situation is addressed immediately by informing Dr. Poon or another JSD professor.

All Poon group members must sign the Safety Acknowledgment Form prior to beginning their research.

The rules for waste disposal are without exception. Fortunately, there are only a few major rules and they are very easy to follow:

1. Nothing goes down the drain except for water, ethanol, and aqueous acids and bases (after lots of dilution), and nontoxic salt solutions. Solid, nontoxic salts can go in the trash.
2. All other liquids go into one of three waste bottles that can be found under the northwestern-most hood (be sure to write down exactly what and how much went into the bottle). Solid waste is dissolved in the appropriate minimal amount of solvent and placed in the appropriate bottle. Warning: look before you pour to avoid overflowing the bottle.

Aqueous Toxic Waste: Solutions containing chromium and other toxic, heavy metals.

Organic Nonhalogenated Waste: As it's name implies.

Organic Halogenated Waste: Anything that contains F, Cl, Br, or I.

3. When in doubt, ask Dr. Poon.

Several factors combine to make a good poster presentation. We'll use a poster from a former group member to illustrate (click here to have it appear in a floating window). The features of this poster that make it good (it was praised by many who saw it at the 2004 ACS Meeting in Anaheim, CA) are:

1. The text is large enough to read from a distance of 3 ft. (to test the readability of your poster, set your view size in Powerpoint to 125% and stand 3 feet from your computer screen). Only standard fonts are used. The standard, acceptable fonts are times, times new Roman, arial, and symbol (don't use anything other than these).
2. Poster sections are laid out professionally from left to right. Typically, a poster should have a title on top followed by the sections as arranged in the example: abstract, intro, results, discussion, conclusion, and acknowledgments. Some posters may have an experimental section in between the intro and results section. Some posters have a section for references right before the acknowledgments section.
3. Nearly everything that needs to be presented is done so graphically. While there is text in spots, it is there for the casual passerby or for people to read once the poster is hanging on the wall unattended back at JSD. In general, there should be as little text as possible.
4. Colors and backgrounds are used judiciously. Do not use psychedelic patterns or flashy colors. Do not use any background that makes it tough to read the text in front of it.
5. It uses sound scientific writing. If you aren't familiar with scientific writing, just pick up an issue of Journal of the American Chemical Society and read therein for examples. Your writing style should match that of the Journal.
6. The poster has been proofread for mistakes. Do this before sending it to Dr. Poon for approval.

A Powerpoint template is available for students*. Please use this and only this as your starting point. Previous files that may be on the lab computer had problems printing, and we'd like to avoid seeing those problems come up again.

When creating a poster, you want it to be able to tell a story of your findings. But you can't simply present your findings as statements of facts one after the other. That's where "the story" comes in. Relay to your audience why your work is interesting or relevant. Present your work in the ideal chronological order for telling the story (even though your project may not have developed in that order). Here are some guidelines for presenting your poster:

1. Look presentable. You can be as formally dressed as in a job interview (i.e. wear a suit), or at the very least, dress as if you are attending dinner at the CMC Athenaeum (no jeans).
2. Be enthusiastic about your research.
3. Practice your delivery several times out loud.
4. Engage casual passerby's (anyone who comes within 3 ft of the poster and stops for 10 sec. to look at it) by saying "hello" and asking "would you like to hear about my research?" If someone says "no," then say "no problem. Don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions."
5. Be confident in your work and results. Although oversights do happen, Dr. Poon would not knowingly let you present results that are erroneous. If someone challenges your work, don't just assume that they are correct. Think about it and if they are wrong, challenge them back in a professional way.
6. Just as your poster should tell a story, so should you.

*Note: If you need to produce a poster for a professional meeting or conference, the Joint Science Department will print one out for you free of charge. Go to this website to submit your poster for printing after it has been approved by Dr. Poon. If the poster is for your senior thesis presentation, the Dept. charges $25 to print your poster (a bargain compared to Kinkos at approx. $80-100).

Several factors combine to make a good Powerpoint presentation. We'll use a presentation from a former group member to illustrate (click here to have it appear in a floating window). The features of this slideshow that make it good are:

1. The text is large enough for the audience to read when it is projected on screen. This is especially so regarding the text in all chemical structures (many presenters make the mistake of using too small a font size for chemical structures).
2. The sections are organized professionally. Typically, a presentation should have the following slide sections:

   Title: the title, your name (or names of all coauthors), and your institution should be prominently displayed. A snazzy graphic makes it interesting since the title page will likely be on display before you actually begin your talk.

   Intro: this should be a brief presentation that explains why the work you will soon present is worthwhile and interesting. This is your sales pitch and should be specifically targeted to your audience. Although not labeled as such in the talk, it is obvious that the first 3 slides are introductory slides.

   Goal of the project: Titled "Research Question" in this talk, this informs the audience that you are about to present your work and the question(s) you sought to explore during your research.

   Experimental: This section should be 1-2 slides at most. Be brief; no one wants to hear ad nauseam every little detail of your procedure. They don't want you to detail all the steps you took that didn't work (although you could summarize these somehow to show how much work you actually did). You might even consider combining these slides with the results (as Adides did in the example).

   Results: Present this as a story if possible. Many research projects develop like a mystery novel..."this curious thing happened, so we did this to try to figure it out, then this thing happened that lead us in this direction, then this happened, etc."

   Discussion: Here's where you need to be able to summarize effectively. As with the Experimental section, you may combine the Discussion with your Results section where appropriate.

   Conclusion: 1 slide (unless you have lots of significant results). Recap for your audience the main result(s) that they should be excited about.

   Acknowledgments: Here's your chance to be gracious and look professional. You must at least mention all funding sources.

3. Nearly everything that needs to be presented is done so graphically. While there is text in spots, it is there for you to use as a queue for delivering your talk or to present crucial data or information. DO NOT have any slides (except outline slides or the acknowledgment slide) that are solely text. There are exceptions to this rule, but they are rare.
4. Colors and backgrounds are used judiciously. Do not use psychedelic patterns or flashy colors. Do not use any background that makes it tough to see the material in front of it. Do not use crazy slide transitions. Do not drive your audience crazy or distract them because that is all that they will remember of your talk.
5. It uses sound scientific writing. If you aren't familiar with scientific writing, just pick up an issue of Journal of the American Chemical Society and read therein for examples. Your writing style should match that of the Journal.
6. Tables should be avoided. If used, it should be for the purpose of pointing out just one or two items on it. If used as a major way to present data, it should be large enough for the audience to read.
7. The presentation has been proofread for mistakes. Do this before sending it to Dr. Poon for approval.

When creating a Powerpoint presentation, you want it to be able to tell a story of your findings. But you can't simply present your findings as statements of facts one after the other. That's where "the story" comes in. Relay to your audience why your work is interesting or relevant. Present your work in the ideal chronological order for telling the story (even though your project may not have developed in that order). Here are some guidelines for presenting your poster:

1. Look presentable. You can be as formally dressed as in a job interview (i.e. wear a suit), or at the very least, dress as if you are attending dinner at the CMC Athenaeum (no jeans, no T-shirts, no shorts, etc.).
2. Be enthusiastic about your research.
3. Practice your delivery several times out loud and at least once in front of someone else.
4. Don't read from your slides.
5. Be confident in your work and results. Although oversights do happen, Dr. Poon would not knowingly let you present results that are erroneous. If someone challenges your work, don't just assume that they are correct. Think about it and, if they are wrong, challenge them back in a professional way.
6. Just as your slides should tell a story, so should you.
7. Practice using a laser pointer. Don't wave it around excessively or continuously make circles. Simply point to the area you wish the audience to focus on or outline a circle around it once.
8. End by thanking the audience for their attention.

This is it....the culmination of lots of hard work. What you put down on paper will be deposited in the JSD archives and prominently displayed in Dr. Poon's office for years. If done well, your thesis will be used as a reference by many a JSD student. If not, it will result in a poor senior thesis grade and may even be used as an example of a poorly written thesis! Here is a timeline for completing your thesis. As you can see, it all begins in the spring of your junior year.

1. Spring of Junior Year: Complete a senior thesis approval form, available from the front office near the 1st floor lobby of the west wing of the Keck Science Center. Keep in mind that your thesis title is tentative. You'll need to find a second reader for your thesis (ask Dr. Poon for suggestions).
2. First Week of September: School has begun and Dr. Poon has required that all thesis students spend the 1st week doing an extensive literature search and doing lots of background reading. Now is the time to begin creating your bibliographic entries in MS Word (or Endnote if you use that software). You must follow the bibliographic style of the Journal of the American Chemical Society with the addition of titles and inclusive page numbers (this is a new rule for acad. year 2006-07 and beyond). Do not change the order of authors in the papers that you read. Another new rule is that Dr. Poon will not allow web references to be used in your senior thesis. The web is a dynamic medium and mostly non-peer reviewed. There is also very little chance that a URL you reference will be there 5 years from now. If you find a website with useful information, it is okay to use that information in your thesis as long as you can find a traditional reference to it (e.g. journal, book, patent, etc.). Since no sections of your thesis are written yet, I suggest entering the citations into a word file under general headings (e.g. "For intro section," "Procedures to reference," "Facts to include as supporting info," "Reviews of <insert topic>," etc.) and then typing a brief description underneath each one (e.g. "use as a reference to illustrate the importance of singlet oxygen," "use as ref. for my PTAD reaction," "use as a reference for my natural products extraction," etc.). From here on, store all your files on your own personal computer as well as the lab computer HD. The excuse that you lost all your data due to a computer crash will not be accepted. Now is also the time to download and look at this example of an excellent thesis written by Catherine Hooper, CMC '05 (you'll want to refer to Hooper's thesis several times throughout the year for good examples). Notice, especially, how much research she performed (i.e. number of reactions run, the extent of her product characterizations, etc.). Catherine published two papers based on her senior thesis work.
3. October: By the week of fall break at the latest, you should have the semblance of an introduction section. You should begin typing some of the procedures you've performed (while they are fresher in your head). You should organize (in digital form) some of the key spectra that you've obtained. You should have many of the structures "drawn" and saved in the program Chemdraw. All of this will make life easier when you prepare your senior thesis oral presentation, which is usually given in the first or second week of November.
4. November: Shortly after Thanksgiving. If you've followed steps 2 and 3, it will be relatively easy for you to finish off the rough draft of your thesis, which is due to your 1st and 2nd reader sometime before finals week. Here's what Dr. Poon requires of your "rough draft:"

A. A Title page: see sample thesis for formatting.

B. A preliminary Abstract: summarize what you've accomplished so far as if your work were done.

C. A completed Introduction section: this should mostly be in its final format for the entire thesis. Your introduction should be a comprehensive review of the literature that deals with your research topic. It should have lots of citations and leave no doubt to your knowledge of your topic.

D. Up to date Experimental Section: procedures for all the work you've done so far should be included in their final format for the entire thesis.

E. A preliminary Results section: place any results (e.g. data, graphs, spectra, etc.) your document using the highest quality possible.

F. A preliminary Discussion section: you may or may not have any results to discuss. Give it your best shot with an eye towards your final thesis (i.e. don't waste time putting anything in this section that you know won't end up in the final thesis).

G. Formatting and Style: your formatting should be correct and consistent. To figure out how to cite a journal article, book, thesis, etc., either consult the ACS Style Guide or look in any ACS journal (preferably J. Am. Chem. Soc. or J. Org. Chem.). Your writing should be scientific and professional. Avoid the use of colloquialisms.

H. Most importantly: "rough draft" is merely a euphemism for incomplete thesis. It does not mean that you don't have to proofread for spelling and grammar errors. I will return to you any thesis that, at the outset, has too many spelling/grammar errors or poor writing.

5. March: Shortly after spring break. You should have incorporated your 1st and 2nd readers' comments and suggested changes into your thesis. At this point, your thesis is almost complete. Add to your experimental and results section. Begin to formulate the Table of Contents, Lists of Figures, Tables & Schemes, and Discussion section. Start to plan your last few experiments.
6. April: 1 week before the due date of your rough draft. Finish the items started in March. Create a Conclusion section, Acknowledgments and an Abstract. Proofread one last time and submit your draft to Dr. Poon and your 2nd reader. Wait for their comments. In the meantime, make sure your lab notebook is up to date, talk to Dr. Poon about which samples to keep from your benchwork, and clean up your part of the lab. Make the changes suggested by your readers and have your thesis hard bound for JSD (and yourself) and softbound for your 2nd reader. The Departmental Thesis Guidelines state that a hardbound copy is to be provided to your 1st reader (Dr. Poon). Instead, simply provide an unbound, unstapled copy in a folder or envelope to Dr. Poon along with the amount that it would have cost you to bind it at the library. The reason is that I send it off to a company in Virginia to have hardbound with lettering for my bookshelf.
7. Don't forget that you need to produce a poster for your thesis defense. Guidelines for this are found above and here on the JSD website.

JSD Student Resource Page: This page contains information for all JSD students regarding poster printing, senior thesis, policies of the Dept., research opportunities, and jobs and careers.

Not Voodoo: An excellent web site created by Prof. Alison J. Frontier of the University of Rochester. The site is subtitled "Demystifying Synthetic Organic Laboratory Technique," and every beginning organic researcher should browse around this site and revisit it often.