Siena Poster Session

This is my first time being in Europe for more than a week, and I am having an amazing time. From wandering around the streets in Rome, to relaxing in Siena, this trip has been more fun than I could have ever expected. I’ve tasted the best pizza I’ve ever encountered, had more wine than in a week than I have in my entire life, and even ate rabbit for the first time. I know that I will continue to make the most of this unique experience, but I am aware that this trip is not all fun and games and that I am also here to learn.

After finding out that we would be attending a poster session, I decided that it would be a good idea to glance over the abstracts in the book we were given. It didn’t take too many titles such as “EPS and DFT/PCM Characterization of Tryptophan vs Tyrosyl Radical in Native and W16Y Mutant of Fungal Versatile Peroxidase” to begin to scare me. Not surprisingly, I found myself far more interested in the project simply titled “Olive Oil as Seen by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy.” I have limited lab experience, and do not understand most lab processes, but I do have some familiarity with NMR spectroscopy through organometallic lab. It was fascinating to learn that recently, NMR has been used to authenticate and analyze olive oil instead of gas chromatography and HPLC. It was easy to see the difference between the quality of olive oil through the diglyceride content, and the slight differences between extra virgin olive oil and other common oils through their NMR spectra.