When Suzanne Mirashrafi was a little girl, all she wanted to be was a forensic anthropologist.
“It was a living puzzle and the application of science was really neat,” she said. Using science to determine a story was like being a real-life Sherlock Holmes.
Though Mirashrafi has had a love of science for most of her life, she’s only recently developed a love for the subject considered to be one of the most difficult subjects at the University — chemistry.
“I’ve always loved science and history … and I might be better at history,” she said.
But when she began her first year of college last year and her honors chemistry class started, she knew where she belonged.
“It’s the foundation of all the sciences,” Mirashrafi said. “Coming into college, I thought it was the hardest class, and you can apply it to all the sciences.”
If math is the language of science, chemistry is the syntax, grammar, punctuation and plot. In every science, be it geology, biology, medicine, neuroscience or even psychology, everything can be broken down into atoms, molecules, structure, chemical properties, stereochemistry and everything else chemistry encompasses.
“There’s a reason science majors aren’t required to take a language,” Mirashrafi said.
It’s no wonder chemistry is one of those classes that filters out the weak of heart. It almost filtered me out, but not Mirashrafi.
“Taking the classes, I realized it was my favorite,” she said.
Last year Mirashrafi took 21 credits, which included honors chemistry and honors chemistry lab, along with other Honors College classes. She also worked in the library for about 10 hours a week.
Steadily, a love of chemistry crept up on her. There was never a cloud-breaking, sun-beam-striking, angels-chorusing moment of epiphany — it was learning that she actually liked doing her chemistry homework and was looking forward to work in a lab.
“I realized I like talking about (chemistry),” she said.
The hands-on experience that Mirashrafi gets working in the DeRose Lab only solidified her love of chemistry. In the lab, Mirashrafi works with RNA, DNA and proteins. Currently she’s been running gels on proteins to separate out its parts based on charge or size. And she loves lab so much that even though she’s only technically signed up for six hours a week, so goes in whenever she can.
“I learn faster in doing things, and I’m hoping it’ll help me discover (what I) want to do after earning my own degree,” she said.
Though her schedule seems like an endless parade of molecules and atoms, Mirashrafi does have a life outside of school. She’s recently discovered a new love for salsa dancing and goes dancing at the Veteran’s Club every Friday she can. She also cooks, watches a lot of movies, and reads everything from Harry Potter to Jane Austen.
After she finishes her undergraduate degrees in chemistry and Spanish, Mirashrafi has no idea what she wants to do.
“Med school is a back-up,” she said. “If I can’t find anything else I’ll just get my M.D., and if I don’t like that, I’ll find something else. It’s either grad school or med school.”
It’s people who have qualities like Mirashrafi’s — the curiosity, the enthusiasm for a challenge, the drive to learn — who make the most important discoveries in the world. One of my favorite things about her (and I’ve told her many times) is her enthusiasm for chemistry. I could never enjoy chemistry — it’s way too hard — but I respect its place in the scientific world I love so much. I’m glad people like Mirashrafi exist to show me the wonders of a difficult subject.
“Chemistry is the only science where you can take two completely different things, combine them in a test tube and make something new,” she said enthusiastically, during one of our numerous nerdy conversations. “That’s the closest you can get to magic.”
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