SANTANA ’15: GOOD QUESTIONS, SMART RESEARCH
Do I belong?
That was among the questions swirling through Josh Santana’s head as he began his transition from life as a Wabash senior to graduate studies in chemistry at Indiana University.
Yet his tendency to ask questions was the very thing that would establish him as a member of the graduate research community.
“I was intimidated when I first showed up,” he says. “You have to get comfortable asking questions. It takes effort. Anyone can learn if they have the interest and are willing to put in the hard work.”
Fast-forward four years and Santana ’15 definitely feels a part of the community. In fact, he’s thriving. The PhD candidate has already been the lead author on three published papers and has a provisional microreactor process patent.
After working on organic dye synthesis with Dr. Laura Wysocki at Wabash, he now focuses on metal nanoparticle synthesis in Dr. Sara Skrabalak’s laboratory. There he constructs and tests particles in different shapes and sizes to match properties with desired effects. His research is applied to photothermal therapy, essentially burning a tumor cell from the inside out. If a particle is built to absorb light at 800 nanometers, a wavelength at which human tissue does not absorb light, it can be injected into a tumor and the area of the body can be hit with an 800-nanometer laser. The particles will absorb that light and heat up, but the healthy body tissue will not.
“Josh is incredibly determined,” Dr. Skrabalak says. “Research involves conducting a lot of experiments until finding exactly the right conditions. He designs smart experiments, which get him to his end goals quickly, and he is creative in solving experimental problems, often coming up with clever ways to find solutions.”
“When I immerse myself in something, I don’t want it to go to waste,” he says. “I really believe in the work I’m doing, so I want to get it out there to everyone.”
With multiple publications and presentations during his time at IU, getting it out there hasn’t been an issue for Santana.
“Communication is huge in the science community,” he says. “At Wabash, that was drilled home for me. You learn to communicate with all types of people with different knowledge bases. I’ve used that to my advantage here and I think that helps me to stand out.”