In the morning, we talked to Dr. Kevin Boggs, who works in commercialization at RTI. He talked to us about what his job entails, his education, and his career path. I honestly wasn’t expecting much from the meeting, but Dr. Boggs was very engaging and I found his story fascinating. I realized breakthroughs in research can’t make a difference on their own: they have to be commercialized for the public to benefit. Dr. Boggs talked about how it was gratifying to bring life-saving applications of research to people, even though he wasn’t involved intellectually in the discovery. He discussed how it was beneficial for him in the business to have a PhD in biology – it allows his to understand the concepts he’s selling and also gives him credibility. It was interesting to hear about an application of an advanced science degree that isn’t in research. I also learned about the Copyright Clause in the US Constitution (Article 1 Section 8 Clause 8) that guarantees an inventor the right to their invention!
The afternoon was dedicated to extensive chemical inventory. Madisen and I got through two shelves of chemicals in bottles big and small, some expired, some leaking, some with names that took up two lines on the bottle. A particularly memorable name: (heptadecafluoro-1, 1, 2, 2-tetrahydrodecyl)trimethoxysilane. As Madisen aptly put it, “you know it’s bad when (something like) ‘cystamine dihydrochloride’ seems refreshingly short.” It’s all part of the intern experience.