Shining a photochemical light on undergraduate research

With four seasons under our belt, we’ve heard some amazing stories about how our guests have found, or often “stumbled” into, their careers in science. We’ve also had many conversations where past guests have passionately discussed the importance of their early career teachers as well as what teaching does for them in their current careers. This conversation is squarely centered on these two topics, with a good dose of photochemistry mixed in too.

We meet Dr. Izzy Lamb, Assistant Professor at Fort Lewis College, which is a small liberal arts school in Colorado with a primarily undergraduate student population. Izzy is entertainingly forthright in admitting that he’s often a bit surprised by his success in chemistry given that he was failing the topic in high school and was later accepted to only one of the six graduate programs he applied to. However, our conversation quickly uncovers why Izzy has been successful in what matters most to him—exploring photochemistry and training the next generation of chemists.

Join us for this engaging look at how Izzy has built a thriving career in chemistry through perseverance, passion, and knowing what matters most to him. We learn about his career in photocatalysis and how he’s now adapting his research to better fit the resources and undergraduate students where he’s now working. A passion for teaching students in a way that gets them thinking and equipped to solve real-world problems is his priority, and we learn how he’s using a passion for understanding quantum yields of photochemical reactions to help inform more sustainable ways of doing chemistry.

Related episodes:

• Season 1, Ep.2: Reinventing plastics, one reaction at a time
• Season 3, Ep.1: Fuel the world with light - the wonders of nano-magnesium
• Season 3, Ep.9: Energy harvesting and self-sustainable greenhouses

Bonus content!

• Access bonus content curated by this episode’s guest by visiting www.thermofisher.com/chemistry-podcast for links to recent publications, podcasts, books, videos and more.
• View the video of this episode on www.thermofisher.com/chemistry-podcast.

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