Arcadia Ireland

About

About

I'm a current junior, majoring in chemistry. I'm from Berkeley, California -- born and raised. I've played viola since fourth grade when every elementary schooler in the Berkeley unified school district learns to play an instrument, and I still play in my college orchestra. I've never been really good, but I practiced enough to audition for and join first my high school and now the college orchestra. I really enjoy the outdoors, especially backpacking. I try to go backpacking with my friends whenever I can manage it, which is never as often as I'd like. In high school, I would backpack with my friends from the cross-country team. I ran cross country and distance events in track in high school and I still run a little bit. Once I thought I would be on a club or DIII varsity cross-country team in college, but I'm too injury-prone for that. However, I still really enjoy running and am thinking of trying to compete in triathlons at some point in my life, most likely after college. I've always liked science, and it's funny how being at Mudd (which is very STEM-centric) has made this less of a defining characteristic of mine. But while abroad, it most likely will be. I love the institutions of science -- theory, experiment, peer review, etc. -- as well as the knowledge we gain about the natural world. We live in a beautiful world, and science is a way to discover that beauty. My favorite part of science is near the intersection of chemistry and physics, learning about what is going on at the atomic and molecular levels. I also have a special fondness for chemical elements and the periodic table. I also really like working with chemicals in the lab, and am considering getting a chemistry Ph.D. I'll leave it at that -- hopefully, it's the right size for "a bit." At any rate, that's about the picture I would paint for readers of my blog, with details coming forth as the need arose.