A Talk with Professor Styles

There’s a small line of students with questions about class that Professor Styles efficiently dispatches - she’s great at explaining this stuff, you realise - and then she waves you over with a frown on her face.

“I didn’t think anybody was actually going to deliberately not take notes so that they could be called on like that,” Professor Styles said. “That was bold of you. Especially since you weren’t comfortable with the material.”

“Oh, it wasn’t deliberate,” you reply, suddenly realising that’s how you probably came off to most people in the class. “I was hospitalised last week, and didn’t realise that was a class rule. But um.. I figured out the problem after I sat down,” you say, and you pull out the paper from your notebook. “Basically, going back to the end nitrogens, you have the lone pair as I mentioned earlier, and that makes the steric number 4, with hybridisation sp3, giving us a pyramidal shape…”

Professor Styles turns from looking slightly peeved to mildly impressed as you continue on, and as you finish off, talking about Hartree-Fock and nuclear structures, she scratches her head.

“Wow,” Professor Styles says, looking doubly impressed. She pauses for a good few seconds, taking in what just happened. “You are a first year, right? Not some grad student sitting in my class pulling my leg? Because that genuinely went above and beyond my expectations.”

Yeah, there’s a reason you think you’re going to be a chem major.

“I was really into chemistry in high school,” you offer, and she laughs. The blouse that she wears shows considerable cleavage, and you find it hard to keep your eyes centred as her chest jiggles.

“Yeah, I can tell,” she says. “I was going to tell you off and be a bit pissy, but now I want to poach you as a research assistant before any of my colleagues do. Do you have any experience working in a real chemist’s lab?” Wait. Did that just work? You shake your head to answer her.

“Perfect,” she says, catching you off guard. “My lab is purely computational - I mean, many of the good labs nowadays are, but do you know how to code? And how’s your background in higher math? No worries if you’re not quite comfortable with either, we can get you up to speed quickly.”

“I know bits of both,” you say honestly, “but I’m guessing that there’s still quite a lot I’d be missing to do the kind of work you’re investigating.”

“No, not at all. Here, why don’t you give me your email, and I’ll send you a paper or two that I’ve worked on. If it looks interesting, let me know, and we’ll get you onboard!”

“Thanks!” you say, astounded by the turn of events. “I’m looking forward to your email already!”

“I’m sure you are,” she says drily. “Now, go have some fun, because heaven knows - if you’re in my class and going to be in my lab, there won’t be room for too much more of it in the future. I’m joking, of course,” she says, seeing your expression fall. “Mostly.”

Styles +15