Prem plays the baritone saxophone. He once built a potato cannon and worked out the math and other calculations for the trajectory. Prem is interested in engineering as a career because "the job would involve math, but also a hands on element."
Prem's brother had a beat-up old car and Prem noticed that waxing it seemed to make the spots on its finish go away. Prem got an idea to create a wax that would fluoresce and make old clunkers appear shiny again. He hypothesized that wax synthesized directly from fluorophores—and added to commercial car waxes—would impart a fluorescent effect on car wax and onto any polished surface.
Waxes are esters of long-chain fatty acids and alcohols. For his experiment, Prem wanted to use fluorophores that could be modified into wax molecules. He decided that fluoescein and 4-methyl-6, 7-dihydroxy coumarin were good candidates based on their chemical structure. He reacted the coumarin with other compounds to form a coumarin diester, a coumarin monoester, and a coumarin diether. Then he reacted the fluorescein to form a fluorescein monoether. He mixed these synthesized waxes into commercial car wax and applied the results to filter paper disks placed under ultraviolet light. A paper with regular car wax was used as a control. The synthesized waxes imparted a brightening effect, with the diether compound yielding the best results.
