Eric Green ’24 — I would like to thank Dr. Schmitt, the Wabash College Chemistry Department, and Wabash College for giving me this opportunity to gain research experience. I would also like to thank Corteva Agriscience for funding our research project. My final thanks go to the Wabash career service department for helping me land the internship. Without all of your support, this summer would not have been possible!
This summer the Schmitt Research Lab spent eight weeks performing second harmonic generation (SHG) scans of leaves. Second Harmonic Generation is the doubling of light frequency when a laser hits an SHG active material. To be SHG active the crystal must be noncentrosymmetric. This pretty much means that the unit cell of a crystal is not symmetrical on both sides. SHG could be very useful in the testing of pesticides in agriculture saving time and money.
I spent most of my day running images on our SHG microscope. If I was not scanning, I was treating leaves or analyzing data. While a lot of work was done we also had some fun. We had a cookout on Fridays and I got to learn more about mass spectrometry and graduate schools from Dr. Schmitt.
I would like to conclude by once again thanking Wabash College, Wabash College Chemistry Department, Wabash Career Services, Dr. Schmitt, and Corteva Agriscience for giving me this wonderful opportunity this summer.
