Critical Self-assessment 1 cont.

Second of all, research. It is the main reason of my being here. I joined Prof. Geoffrey Ozin's group at the end of September after the supervisor selection period. It is a materials chemistry group which focuses on inorganic nanomaterials. I have been involved in three projects since then, and am still in the process of training on related technical skills. I have taken a chemistry course related to my research; its name is nanochemistry: a chemical approach to nanomaterials. It provides a broad view of current research endeavor on nanoscience, and such a helicopter view is just what I want and need in this beginning period. In summary, either in lab or in class, I am still in the process of training, and I have not yet been able to produce anything creative and novel. In the self-assessments that come afterwards, I should gauge my research performance by how creative my work is, not by how much work I have done.

Thirdly, non-major courses. I took three courses that are not related to my major in this semester: two English courses and one course on entrepreneurial skills. They are pretty informative, and I have summarized important sessions in my previous posts.

As for spare time, gosh, I hardly had any real spare time. But I went to a concert once, visit a distance relative once, chatting in pub, having fun with other group members. Seems not a too dull life.

Silly things and mistakes. I certainly made lots of mistakes. But most of them are about food, and have little worth for recording: wasting food because I store them too long, poor cooking, etc. There are also silly things I have done in getting alone with people. But it seems that I forgot them quickly, and now I cannot recollect any of them. I should keep a list of silly things I have done and update the list more frequently than self-assessing.

So here ends my first self-assessment.