The lab T-shirts featured in the hottest summer styles section of the graduate student edition of Vogue were created by our very own Dr. Sumi Wren! Check out the design inspiration below!

Design inspiration and explanation

The Richmond Lab uses a sum frequency spectroscopy technique where two pulsed beams reflect off an air-water surface and create a third beam which contains spectral information about the interface. You can see these three beams in the lower portion of the shirt. One thing everyone in the Richmond Lab shares in common is a love of the great Oregon outdoors! Innumerable camping trips and hikes in the Cascade mountains are fondly remembered in the design’s background peaks. The nearest mountain, however, resembles some entirely different peaks we’ve come to know and love here in the Richmond Lab; they are the coordinated water modes and free OH peak characteristic to a successful sum frequency scan. This pattern makes all Richmond Lab members happy, because it means our glassware is clean, our experiment is set up, and we’re ready to solve some interfacial mysteries!