What a whirlwind! The day started with a crash course of RTI with Dr.Rothrock, and the “ambassador of Emily”, Mr.Phil Durham. RTI was the first research center in North Carolina, which came from a push to keep local intellectuals in North Carolina after college graduation. Since it’s creation in 1958, RTI has acted as a means to innovate the world through science as an “in between” non-profit for university and industry. There are many facets to the research including policy, social science, statistics, economics, biology and chemistry. Phil Durham is a biochemist, specializing in particles, and is part of the team working on a major HIV prevention research project. Additionally, he is working on an aerosol powder to target Tuberculosis at its source – the lungs. But there is a wide range of projects occurring at RTI simultaneously. Dr.Rothrock (head of the HIV project) is also part of an NIH evaluation, as well as worked on a recent vaginal ring project. By the end of the day I helped work on the HIV prevention experiment, measuring the absorbency of light in a photometer. I even ran my own test and graphed it against a blank buffer sample to view the resulting trend!
Learning about light absorbency!
RTI Powerpoint: 2016 April Clinton Health
Excell Spreadsheet of Collected Data: Copy of Copy of EEL Dilution 8 5-23-16 Graph
CA Work Experience Program 2016 