This week, I visited the laboratory at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Connecticut, where Dr. Tomoyasu Mani, a first-year graduated student of SSH works.  I made the D-A (donor acceptor) molecule based on BODIPY (boron-dipyrromethene: a type of fluorescent dye) using the Suzuki Coupling method. I used Rotary evaporator and Column chromatography in this experiment, and I was surprised to find so many experimental instruments that I had never seen before.  But I was more surprised.  In the United States, it is thrown away when the test tube and the pipette etc. are used only once.  I thought it was unthinkable in Japan.
　  I study for about six hours every day, but I feel that time passes very quickly, and I spend a fulfilling life.
Until last week, I was living in a university dormitory, but this week I'm living in a hotel in the university.  The hotel has a swimming pool, and of course all TV programs are in English, so it's also a good way to learn listening.  A lot of Japanese anime is broadcast in English.  I went to the supermarket.  There were many types for each food.
 *The Suzuki reaction is an organic reaction, classified as a cross-coupling reaction, where the coupling partners are a boronic acid and an organohalide catalyzed by palladium complex. It was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry by Akira Suzuki in 2010.
   (309HR   Ikeda Yumeka)

  Studying with Dr. Mani　 
  Experiment
  TLC
  Rotary Evaporator