Alumni in Action
Samantha Leach '06
What is your current position and what do you find exciting about it?
I am currently the senior chemist in the DC Department of Forensic Sciences. I actually never thought I would enjoy drug chemistry as a job in forensics, but I find it a very exciting career as our lab is very different. First, I call DC “Controlled Substances Christmas”; as in, you never know what you have until you open the package – and run the analysis of course. But more than just that, our unit participates in a surveillance program, meaning we request seized evidence not yet associated with a court case and process it to determine what is in the current drug supply to keep our community at large informed. Our unit provides both forensic and public health services to the District.
How did your Chemistry degree help you prepare for your position?
I was very surprised to learn that while drug detection seems like it would be an analytical field (shout out to Dr. Miller), and it definitely is when performing quantitative analysis, most processes are organic. I’m thankful to have had Dr. Witucki’s very intensive organic program to help prepare me for processing every day samples. Organic is not my strong suit by far, but I do believe that year long course help provide me with more solid footing to succeed in my position. Also, though there are no acid-base titrations (at least so far) in my daily work, I do regularly provide purity (quantitative) analysis of specific samples which requires very precise and exact methods just like I learned in Dr. Miller’s class.
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