Derick's+BRI+Experience

I thoroughly appreciated the opportunity to tour Bend Research Institute. Sadly, as a student studying science, the field in practice is still a relative novelty. Having the chance to tour a working facility while work was being done helped to breakdown a sort of mental barrier that had been prohibiting this kind of work as a possibility. It has been easy for me to read studies and research reports in envy of the people involved in the process without a sense of connection to the process. It's been an important realization for me that at the heart of scientific research, it is just people like you and I conducting the research as opposed to some sort of superhuman brain master. Granted, you have to have your smarts to be successful in science, but it is not an insurmountable task. Furthermore, it has been important for me to realize that if one is lucky, greatness comes with time and practice, not necessarily from the beginning of their career. Basically, I feel as if exposure to the process is the best way to break down these barriers and this experience definitely helped with that. So true! I have met some amazingly smart scientists in my life, but not one of them gets by on smarts alone. Science requires WORK, plain and simple, and dedication to the process often leads to progress. I like that about science. And yet the public perception is that scientists are nerdy, and often unusually intelligent.

At an earlier time in my life, I ran the Cibelli's pizza shop down in Tumalo. Why is this important? I remember seeing BRI employees coming down on their lunch to run hill repeats up the huge sand hill behind the pizza shop. At this point in my life, I ate pizza, drank beer, and played pool. Therefore, I kind of thought these people were crazy! However, with my finely tuned hindsight, I can see that even then I was a little envious of the people who had a job that made this a priority in their workday. That same feeling came back to me as soon as I arrived on sight to ultimate Frisbee with various people running around the property. It made the whole place appear more real, friendly, and approachable. That feeling was reinforced with throughout the tour as people appeared friendly and generally happy. I'm sure the job isn't all sunshine and rainbows, however, it was looking pretty good. The company recognizes that healthy employees are better workers, I think. They also know that all that informal socializing leads to more effective work teams.

I would have liked to have focused on the chemistry of how they solve their various problems a little more. Even though I would not have understood everything, I do appreciate learning things I know very little about from those that do. It was cool to be able to go into each of their labs and take a look at all of the equipment they have and what they are using it for. There were no major revelations here, just cool to see technology being used. I was surprised at the state most of their labs were in. I wouldn't expect active labs to be spic and span, however, there was significantly more clutter and mess than I was expecting. It was also refreshing to see people my age in there making moves and running equipment. The highlight for me was taking a look at the electron microscopes. This does not surprise me because I still vividly remember the feeling of power I got weighing out a substance to .001 g in Zelda's Lab. So, you can imagine my excitement at looking at an image on the computer screen that was magnified 5,000 times. That's crazy and I like it. I would have loved to see something on the big boy they have that can magnify 300,000 times. WOW!

Like I said before, I would have liked to talk more about the chemistry involved. With the lack of that, the experience was less about actively learning a lot and more about taking in the experience. It was nice to not have to focus on what I needed to remember and instead just soak it all in. We have had more general introduction to the company in previous years, but each time we go out we are working around the business that is going on there....sometimes there are business meetings in the conference rooms, or different people are available to lead the tours, etc.. The tour did focus very much on the place and equipment this time. Getting a picture of how they solve problems would be a nice addition.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I'm glad it was a good experience for you.