Growing Responsibility-Thomas DiSorbo

Beautiful sky on the path
from imec to my residence

With a few weeks under my belt, my work at imec has gradually risen in complexity to the point where I feel fully immersed in the details and necessities of my project. I consider all my time under the tutelage of my supervisor Chengxun Liu to be learning experience and I feel that I have reached a milestone, one where I have the necessary training to offer real, independent contributions to our work.

With much of the infrastructure already in place (we are hoping to capture and lyse the cell using pre-existing electrode designs), one of my key tasks has been to design the nature of the electrical pulse. This is in part an optimization problem, as I have been using the mathematical models of our cells and electrodes to determine the boundaries in which our pulse must exist if we want lysis to be possible. Too high or too low a frequency can repel the cell instead of attract it, and too strong a voltage can damage the electrodes delivering the charge. 

Beyond working on modeling, my responsibility on the project has grown rapidly. That being said, I have yet to feel overwhelmed, as there exists a healthy amount of supervision at imec, where I am never sent to perform a difficult task I have not been walked through previously. My mentor and those who work around me take the time to explain to me any processes I am unfamiliar with, and all have the patience to discuss the theory behind everything we do. Once I have indicated I understand a process however, I am left to perform it alone. In this way, I can operate in an environment tailored to augment my professional confidence. While my work in the United States was organized with a similar trend of growing responsibility, I have noticed that my mentorship was less team oriented. Instead of receiving help from multiple sources within a department, my time at Hopkins has been spent under the tutelage of a single supervisor. While there are advantages and disadvantages to both systems, it has been a pleasure to embrace the more community-oriented feel at imec.

In my spare time on the weekends, I take advantage of my proximity to a number of fantastic cultural destinations. This past weekend I visited Paris in an incredibly memorable trip that I was lucky enough to be able to schedule without interrupting my workflow. 

Paris from the arc de Triomphe.