1 Update 2015
- Update 2015
- 1.1 PHD PROGRAM
- 1.2 BALTIMORE LIVING
- 1.3 OTHER FUN
- 1.4 Pictures
I have every hope that this letter will make it out in a relatively timely fashion, in contrast to last year's letter which never was sent out.
1.1 PHD PROGRAM
2015 can be summed in two distinct tasks that consume very large portions of my time: classwork and confocal imaging. Thankfully this winter semester marks the end of classes for me. Topics like cancer, immunology, biomaterials, tissue engineering, metabolic biotechnology, and biofluidics are done forever. No more finals, no more term projects, no more driving back and forth between campuses. The driving was probably the worst part of the semesters--our engineering school is on the undergraduate campus, while I work at the medical campus, adding an extra hour of non-productivity each day.
Confocal work has been draining. Part of my research looks at how blood vessels form when we oxygen-starve them, and to take images of how they look I get to use super fancy $1.5M sub-micron laser confocal microscope. The draining part is that each image takes 30min to capture and happens in a dark room, which for the purpose of statistics means that I spend 80hours in the dark room for each experiment. And I'm on my fourth experiment this year.
Other big news, I passed my doctoral board oral qualifying exam in June, which is sort of equivalent to getting my masters and means I'm cleared to start doing the real work on my dissertation now. The exam was five professors asking me any questions for two hours, which ranges from stem cell biology to the inner workings of flow cytometry.
Some new research (which came with funding for me!!) is focused on 3D printing spina bifida defects. Right now, we correlate the 3D ultrasound with a 3D design volume we can manipulate: first validating the ability of the modality to retain accurately retains the spatial features in each dimension, and second printing spina bifida defects for surgeons to practice on.
Some more excitement this fall, was my participation in a medical hackathon. Hackathons are events where nerds/engineers/smart people get together and form teams to solve some world problems. I worked with a medical doctor to detect early onset of compartment syndrome -- when the muscle starts to swell and painfully compress the blood vessels and nerves until the muscle dies and the leg has to be amputated. We designed a device and pitched it to a number of venture capitalists, and places second out of 60 teams. Right now we're working on filing a patent for our device and finding a sponsor to fund the final design and trials.
With the department, I joined the student council and worked very hard to plan both our recruitment of the 2015 PhD class and our 2015 department retreat. Our recruitment weekends were all sorts of fun as we had near-debilitating snow both weekends. Baltimore cannot handle the snow, and I've now had more snow-days at Hopkins than I ever did at UVA. This winter seams much tamer, and I'm sure everyone will be enjoying all the warm weather records we are breaking across the board.
Our retreat was at this year was a departure from the traditional Ocean City MD for the much closer Washingtonian (Bethesda MD). I was super happy about the relative closeness to Baltimore (only 30min as opposed to 3.5hrs) and the awesome twitter scavanger hunt I setup. We had professors dressed up as Wookies, Stormtroopers, and Darth Vader to re-enact scenes from Star Wars in the middle of a mall.
1.2 BALTIMORE LIVING
Sirens were heard basically all night, and there were reports of masked gunmen on both of Hopkins campuses. I had a grab bag packed ready to go if needed, but felt pretty safe staying at home -- there are no businesses to loot near me, and I'm a block or two off most major roads. All of the looting seemed targeted at businesses, and not residences. Gov Hogan seemed to be making a lot of press, and was in the city the morning and weeks afterward.
The worst part was not fearing for my safety, or the abundance of national guard with automatic weapons walking around the medical campus, but the curfew. I ended up fleeing to DC a number of night just to be able to do anything at night. Old Ebitt Grill next to the White House has some very incredible memories now, and I highly recommend their late night oyster happy hour.
Hobby-wise, I've joined a running club. We meet up on Friday nights and follow a scavanger-hunt style trail through a new part of the city. It's a great blend of tracking the trail (which slows down the faster runners so we can all stay together) and social interactions (starting and finishing at a bar).
I've also kept up my carpentership-DIY skills, and built new tables for my rowhouse. They're modular country-style table and benches, which can seat anywhere between 4 and 20 people. Considerable help came from Dad and Gdad in acquiring the tools and several hours cutting all the parts. My plan is to eventually wood burn different scenes from Baltimore and Hopkins into the tabletops and give them a hard finishing.
Special shoutouts to the people who have managed to visit me/Baltimore: Dad, Kathryne, Hannah, Zac, Luke, and Alex. They've described Baltimore as a 'Charming City,' 'like going back in a time machine to the 80s/90s,' and 'not that bad.' If you come visit on a particularly exciting day, our roof-deck is great for watching helicopters circle and mysterious military blimps looming over the city.
1.3 OTHER FUN
In the process of being an actual grown up, I attended two weddings this year! First were Christen and Mark in the spring. It was my first Orthodox Christian wedding, and was the afternoon after I had run my first half marathon. The race is relevant because Orthodox weddings involve the congregation standing for most of the very long ceremony, and I just wanted to melt into a bed. Second were David and Julia in the Fall. After a super-long drive to Atlanta with Luke, I enjoyed exploring local bars, a scaled-hiking trail of the solar system, and hotel pools. Both weddings were super off the chain, and make me value both my UVA and my Christian fellowship communities.
Two of the younger sisters had graduations this year! Hannah from James Madison University, and Bethany from Dominion High School. My spatial closeness to the rest of the family means that I've seen them, the parentals, and the grandparentals more this year than during all of college. There's just something about not having to cook your own food that keeps bringing me back.
I'm looking forward to a new year with more backpacking adventures, less fires, and maybe a triathlon.
Cheers and such,
Ethan
1.4 Pictures
