Over the past few months, I've modified my educational trajectory from a PhD in Art Conservation to a PhD in Chemistry. This decision was a long time coming, but it was solidified when I attended theAmerican Institute of Conservation conference in Los Angeles in May and realized that all the talks I truly found fascinating were presented by PhDs in chemistry or physics, and the talks which fell a little short or felt like cursory glimpses at much larger and more interesting studies... were presented by conservators with the exact degree I wanted to pursue.
Despite the enormous challenge of my organic chemistry class this summer (or in some way, probably because of it), I changed my "What I Want to Be When I Grow Up" answer from "art conservator" to "art conservation scientist," a subtle, but incredibly significant change (which yeah, involves a heck of a lot more education and... math).
At work, I've been pushing myself further in this direction, and to that end I submitted a poster abstract to the American Chemical Society's Northeast Regional Meeting (NERM), which will be held this week in Hartford, CT. And, umm, it got accepted!
(Would fireworks be gratuitous here? Probably.)
So I am presenting Handheld X-Ray Fluorescence Studies of Italian Wall Paintings, which details projects conducted in Volterra, Cavriglia, and the Herculaneum, Italy, using a handheld XRF spectrometer to analyze the surface elemental composition of wall paintings and mosaics. To say I am ridiculously excited would be a tremendous understatement.
I joke with one of my labmates that sometimes I feel like that episode of American Dad! where Francine goes on a cruise and becomes a surgeon, complete with a white lab coat and stuffed teddy bear named Dr Bearington. In reality, we're practicing what that labmate calls "immersion chemistry," similar to taking a plane to France for an immersion language - we are dropped in the middle and need to learn all the chemistry surrounding what we're doing as we go.
(These pictures, btw, were from earlier this summer when our group was filmed for a documentary.)
I'll know for sure after I attend this conference this week, but something about all this just... fits. That's a pretty incredible feeling.
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