Phumint Oudom Pann
I’m a rising sophomore chemistry major at Denison University. My strongest current questions are about semiconductor materials—especially how purity, processing, interfaces, and defects affect device quality. I’m seeking a faculty-guided laboratory or research opportunity for Summer 2027 to test and refine that direction through hands-on experience.
Chemistry • Denison University • Class of 2029
The question underneath the device
Introduction
I learn best when I can connect a physical observation with data.
My full name is Phumint Oudom Pann, and I go by Dom. I grew up in Cambodia and did not initially imagine studying in the United States. Extracurricular experiences encouraged me to think more deliberately about my future. A World Scholar’s Cup visit to Yale made a U.S. education feel possible, and an exchange year at The Charles Finney School in Penfield, New York, helped me become more comfortable adapting to people and expectations different from those I knew.
At Denison, I value a liberal-arts education because I want breadth alongside scientific depth. I first considered medicine as a way to help people, but coursework and teaching laboratories gradually showed me that chemistry better matches how I like to learn: observing physical changes, working with materials, moving through an active laboratory, and connecting what I see with data.
I am still early in my scientific training, and I want direct research experience to help me discover which questions and working environments fit me best. My biology courses also introduced me to statistics and R, which I can carry into future chemistry questions.
Chemistry major · Class of 2029
Rising sophomore · Summer 2026
Incoming CHEM 131 teaching-laboratory assistant
Group course project
How do sweet-potato-peel mass, grind size, and incubation time affect the adsorption of methylene blue from water?
My teammates and I prepared boiled and dried sweet-potato peels, compared coarse and fine samples, varied adsorbent mass, and tested 30- and 60-minute incubation periods. The project brought material preparation, instrumental measurements, data organization, scientific interpretation, poster design, and oral presentation into one investigation.
Methods and tools
My contribution
We planned the procedure and interpreted the results collaboratively. My individual contributions included:
What changed my thinking
Greater adsorbent mass and longer incubation generally improved removal. Coarse particles, however, unexpectedly outperformed fine particles under several conditions.
We first imagined the larger pieces acting like larger sponges. Faculty feedback complicated that intuition because fine particles should ordinarily expose more surface area and binding sites.
We considered whether the fine particles aggregated during incubation, reducing the surface accessible to the dye. That remained a possible explanation, not a mechanism we proved. SEM images appeared to show greater porosity in the fine material, which made the result more interesting rather than resolving it.
Current direction
Semiconductors are my leading interest right now, but I do not yet understand fabrication in depth. I want coursework and research to help me move from familiar devices toward the chemistry of wafers, thin films, purity, processing, interfaces, and defects.
Apple’s M-series devices gave me an accessible starting point. I noticed their combination of speed, battery life, low heat, and, in some devices, fanless operation. That user-level observation made me curious about the materials and processes underneath the device.
How do material choice, purity, processing, interfaces, and defects influence the quality and efficiency of semiconductor devices?
I want to learn how wafer growth, thin films, material purity, defects, and interfaces affect manufacturing yield and device quality. I am also curious about the economic side of quality control: whether further defect reduction is worthwhile while its marginal benefit exceeds its marginal cost.
How do processing choices and quality control shape performance and yield?
Renewable energy and electrochemical materials remain meaningful interests. I am deliberately open to other chemistry laboratories because direct experience may reveal a direction that fits me better than the one I can see today.
What other chemistry questions might direct laboratory experience reveal?
Coursework projects
Coursework in SQL and R has shown me how data can sharpen a scientific question—and how a result still needs context, limits, and careful interpretation.
Guided coursework
23,335 games · 2004–2020 seasons
I used SQL to examine scoring patterns, home-team win rates, and the association between three-point accuracy and team success. I do not regularly watch basketball, but the familiar questions made SQL feel more concrete and understandable.
The analysis also showed me the limits of a narrow explanation: defense, rebounding, free throws, and broader scoring efficiency would be needed for a fuller account of team success.
BIOL 220 coursework
Individual analysis · class-collected dataset
My class collected a shared dataset on Madagascar hissing-cockroach thermoregulation. I then completed my own analysis and report in R using statistical workflows taught in the course.
I examined ambient versus body temperature, distribution among warm, mild, and cool zones, and differences between live and model cockroaches. The project showed me that quantitative methods learned in biology can transfer into the questions I pursue in chemistry.
Coursework
My coursework is building a foundation across chemistry, molecular biology, mathematics, and physics as I explore materials science, electrochemistry, energy storage, and semiconductor science.
Atoms and Molecules: Structure and Dynamics
Molecular Biology and Unicellular Life
Introduction to Global Health
First-Year Writing Workshop
Organic Structure and Reactivity
Multicellular Life
Multivariable Calculus
Intermediate Organic Chemistry
Physics I: Quarks to Cosmos
Includes the associated laboratory
Ecology and Evolution
Environmental Philosophy
Developing capabilities
Through my chemistry laboratory courses and interdisciplinary coursework, I am developing practical skills in chemical analysis, data analysis, and academic communication. The examples below connect those skills to work I have actually completed.
Teaching laboratories and the group adsorption project have given me practice following procedures, preparing materials and solutions, making measurements, recording observations, and asking when a step is unclear.
Acid–base titration
Liquid–liquid extraction
Thin-layer chromatography (TLC), including developing and interpreting TLC plates
Melting-point determination
Mixed melting-point analysis
Solution preparation and general laboratory measurement
I used SQL in guided NBA coursework, R for my individual BIOL 220 analysis of class-collected data, and Excel to organize the adsorption project’s results.
SQL for filtering, grouping, joining, and analyzing datasets
Python — currently learning
R — basic experience with statistical analysis
Quantitative data analysis
I have translated laboratory notes and group results into concise methods, conclusions, a poster, and an oral presentation while also completing research-based writing in coursework.
Microsoft PowerPoint
Scientific and academic presentations
Research-based writing
Communicating technical information clearly
Confirmed next role
This role has not started yet. I am presenting it as a next step in learning chemistry while supporting other students—not as experience I have already completed.
Denison University
I have received an offer to serve as an incoming teaching-laboratory assistant for CHEM 131 beginning in Fall 2026.
I currently expect to help students when they are uncertain about laboratory procedures while reinforcing the foundational chemistry and laboratory practices I have learned. Because the role has not begun, I will add specific responsibilities only after they are formally defined.
Reflection and perspective
I tend to observe first and ask questions when I am uncertain. The moments that change my habits are often the ones that do not go as expected.
A laboratory lesson
During a January 2026 copper aspirinate experiment, acetone was correctly used during a Büchner-funnel rinse. Later, during an Organic FUNdamentals recrystallization, I assumed the familiar acetone step also applied. The new product dissolved and passed through the filter.
I recognized the problem and asked my professor for help. The material was recovered after the solution conditions were changed and it was filtered again. The lesson I kept was specific: solvent choice depends on the compound and the purpose of the step. I now check each procedure in its current chemical context and ask before proceeding when I am uncertain.
Friendship and peer support
I am usually quiet and observant in an unfamiliar setting, then more relaxed and humorous around friends. I try to listen, check in on people, and help others feel included. I have informally helped classmates with L’Hôpital’s rule, balancing chemical equations, and rearranging formulas such as F = ma.
Cooking as practical testing
Cooking is one of my favorite activities. In Cambodia, friends and I entered a school food-business competition. Our first proposal did not qualify. The following year, we paid closer attention to the rubric, earned one of the highest proposal scores, and entered the fair, although we did not win it.
I helped lead the food operation by developing and testing the menu, monitoring cooking stations, managing ingredient quantities and spoilage concerns, and transporting supplies. While improving cilantro-lime noodles, I noticed bitterness and poor sauce integration, adjusted the seasonings, cooked the sauce and spices in oil, and stir-fried the noodles into the sauce. I see that as practical recipe testing shaped by chemical curiosity—not formal food-chemistry research.
Immediate priority
My immediate priority is a faculty-guided laboratory or research opportunity for Summer 2027. I currently prefer research before an industry internship because I want hands-on preparation and a clearer understanding of how scientific work operates beyond teaching laboratories.
Semiconductor materials, surfaces, or processing
Materials chemistry or materials science
Electrochemistry and energy materials
Other chemistry laboratories where I can build transferable experimental habits
Learn techniques beyond teaching laboratories
Read and discuss scientific work
Document procedures carefully
Interpret data and imperfect results
Understand how a research group refines its questions
Contribute reliably under supervision
“Research will help me test whether semiconductors are the right direction or lead me toward something I have not encountered yet.”
Seeking a faculty-guided laboratory or research opportunity for Summer 2027
Academic direction
My immediate focus is building a strong chemistry foundation and gaining faculty-guided research experience. I am also exploring Denison’s dual-degree engineering pathway with Washington University in St. Louis as a possible route into chemical engineering.
The pathway interests me because engineering could extend the way I already think about chemistry: from molecular behavior to materials, processes, and useful technology. I have not entered or committed to the pathway, and I want future coursework and research to help me evaluate it carefully.
Contact
I’m looking for a faculty-guided laboratory or research opportunity for Summer 2027. I would be glad to hear from professors, research groups, and programs that welcome early undergraduates who are ready to learn carefully, document their work, and contribute under supervision.
pann_d1@denison.eduUniversity email · Denison University