A Day in the Life of an Organic Chemist

Last October, ASEF, in cooperation with the Škofja Loka High School, organized a popular science lecture as part of the ASEF Young Minds series. The lecture was conducted by Martin Rihtaršič, 2022 ASEF Junior Fellow and Master’s student in Chemistry at UL FKKT.

Martin presented synthetic organic chemistry, which is his field of study. He summarized the main principle of organic synthesis, described in more detail what his work looks like and what reactions synthetic organic chemists encounter in the laboratory.

Finally, Martin presented his research visit under the mentorship of Professor David Šarlah at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he was involved in the synthetic extraction of a compound with anticancer effects.

The project is supported by the Office of the Republic of Slovenia for Youth.