Gary Seng

One specific memory involved a summer research project that I worked on in concert with my partner in crime, Jay Richardson, under the direction of Professor C. E. Wilson. We were studying the ability of an industrial waste product to serve as a flocculating agent to clean wastewater. To perform the study, Jay and I spent many days sampling wastewater at the Belmont Avenue treatment plant after convincing employees that we did indeed want samples of raw sewage water. For comparison, we sampled fully treated plant water and gathered White River water samples for testing by lowering flasks into the water over a bridge. Many an analyses later, we did in fact show the utility of the industrial waste product in aiding flocculation.

On another occasion, Professor Cutshall came to our research lab to request that we stop singing Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May” at the top of our lungs while we were performing research. Sometime during our freshman year, we synthesized nitrogen tri-iodide for a magic show that we had arranged with the Indianapolis Public Library. Nitrogen tri-iodide is a contact explosive that can be diluted in alcohol and when dry crackles when touched. But we had made entirely too much. I remember standing in his doorway and telling Professor Wyma what we had done. In his normal calm demeanor, he said “you shouldn’t have done that.” The he provided succinct instructions on how to remove ourselves from our predicament.

I certainly remember all the professors who taught me so much: Dean Fife, Dave and Falcon, our storeroom technicians, and my fellow chemistry students who formed a small and tight-knit group. I will never lose all the warm memories from my time at IUPUI.