SUMMER OF 2006 IN KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY:  Manhattan Kansas is a beautiful place. I love the people in KSU especially the people I work with. I am currently doing research in Condensed matter physics. My supervisor is Dr. Christopher Sorenson who is an amazing person. Tahereh Mokhatari and Rajan Dhoubedel are my mentors and they are hardworking and very friendly.

PROJECT GOALS: I am trying to figure out the gel time of different volume fractions of polystyrene particles using small angle light scattering in colloids.

RESEARCH STRATEGY:  I have bunch of optical instruments lined up on the optical table including an Argon ion laser(488nm), two lenses (convex and plano convex), a bench to put my samples, a neutral density holder, a pointed tip mirror and finally a (Charge Coupling Device ie; CCD camera detector. I have set up my instruments so that the laser beam hits the sample  (whatever I am looking at), and its image is formed on the CCD camera detector. I have connected this camera to a computer where I can see the image of the diffraction pattern on the sample. The corresponding graph of intensity of diffracted light vs. wave vector q can be obtained from this image.

RESEARCH PROGRESS: Before using Magnesium chloride and polyester sample, I had to line up my setup. I even did a little bit of machine shop work to make a stable base for the CCD camera. My second job was to calibrate the equipments which I did by using a single slit diffraction graph as a basis. Now, I am using 35 mM concentration of the sMgCl₂ and six different volume fractions of polystyrene particles to figure the gel time.

Besides my own research, I am learning a lot here. We have lectures from Dr. Larry Weaver who is extremely friendly and nice guy. We also participate in discussions about ethics and a lot of other informatory activities like graduate school application, GRE preparation etc. I have a lot of REU friends here. It has been a great experience, more than what I had expected.

FINAL REPORT:

Goodbye: Its heartbreaking to say goodbye to all the people and my group here. This has been a very valuable experience of my life. I learned so many things this summer and I am glad I actually came to Kansas State University and did some meaningful work . I am applying here for graduate school again. I wish we didn't have to say goodbye to beautiful people as well as beautiful moments. I love you all and I will miss you all!

Rakshya Khatiwada