Summer Research Abstract
"Hexene Isomerization for Characterization of Catalyst" 

 Hexene is a six-carbon molecule with one double bond on the main chain.  Hexene molecules can be isomerized by subjecting the molecule to different pH levels.  Low pH levels, strong acids, will cause the double bond to migrate to another place on the chain.  Higher ph levels, weak acids and bases, cause the substrates on the main chain to rearrange, but the double bond remains unchanged.  These properties of hexane isomerization will be used to characterize a known catalyst with an unknown surface chemistry.  In these experiments 2 methyl 2 pentene will be fed to a plug flow reactor loaded with catalyst at 250C.  The product gases will be analyzed on a gas chromatograph and the distribution of the product gases will allow us to characterize the surface chemistry of the catalyst.

Biography
"Growth of A Ghetto Sunflower" 

My name is Clyde Washington and I am a senior majoring in Chemical Engineering at Washington State University.    GO COUGS!!!!!!!   I was born in a shack in Richmond, Virginia on July 11, 1974.   I moved to San Bernardino, California, when I was in grade school and lived there until I came to Washington State University.   My mother, Caron Washington, raised me.   I was an only child until I was 18.  My mother remarried and now I have a wonderful little brother, Joey.   (She had to have another child, since the living legend was leaving home.)   I was an only child but I had plenty of cousins in the area so there was always someone to do something with me. 

I rarely went to schools in the area where I lived.  I was sent to schools for gifted students in elementary and middle school.  I didn”t like these schools and always wanted to get back into public school.  Public school was so much more diverse.  I got to be around different types of people with different goals and motivations.  Going to public school gave me the life skills that I needed.   I learned how to deal with people, overcome adversity, and I still got the education that I needed to do well in college.  I went to Frisbie junior high and Eisenhower high school in Rialto.   I wasn”t very interested in academics at either school.  In high school I played football and participated in track and field.   I also played baseball in city leagues.  I would spend hours-playing sports with my friends all time.  In the tenth grade I decided that I wanted to go to college and major in chemical engineering.   I picked this major because it sounded difficult and I liked to be challenged.   I didn”t do well in junior high or early on in high school because I was bored in the classes.  My senior year I had a 4.1 G.P.A. 

After high school I was briefly enrolled at the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama.   I had always wanted to go to that school.  My uncle went there and he was a huge influence on me.   However, I had to leave there because it was very expensive.  I went back to San Bernardino and started school at a local junior college, San Bernardino Valley College.  I spent two years there while working full-time because I paid for school myself.  Although I tried to play football and compete in track and field, I had to give up both sports so I could keep my GPA above C-level.  I stopped going to the JC after 2 years and took time off to work.  Eventually I realized that I was a Cougar at heart, so I moved to Pullman.

Clyde is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Davis.

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