Professor Coggins seminar left a lasting impression on me, because he brought understanding and interest to someone not so well-versed in the field. Don’t get me wrong, many of our other faculty seminars have been just as intriguing and as educational. I also had a little more intel as to grounds of his early research with Orgo 1 being fresh on my mind since last semester. However, Mr. Coggins, went into so much detail about each process, not leaving any room for ambiguity or ignorance. For me, receiving a small taste of knowledge rather than the whole course, is the biggest injustice that you can impose upon me. I remember reading about Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) in Orgo 1 and only barely grasping the technological background of the system, and more worried about being able to read the results of the test. I find that Dr. Coggins explanation of NMR was spot on and then some!
I also remember his vignette about his early research and I was surprised. I mean we know about the process of drug and antibiotic creation – my interest in the subject drove me to work in an immunology lab- but by no means that I figure, by blocking a protein that makes up the lipid bilayer of a bacteria, you could kill it. It’s like, I often think of bacteria as such complex and alien beings, even though they are nothing of the sort. This just goes to confirm their submission to rules of logic that humans are subjected to, by dying if their skin is pierced.
I have always found the area of biology an adventure after AP Biology and Chemistry has been just as fascinating recently, especially considering I can start to bridge the gaps between bio and chemistry with my new found knowledge. Maybe, it’s just the fact that Dr. Coggins teaches in a field that I find so intriguing. Either way, I definitely want to catch up on the work he is doing.
