Gardella's office in the Natural Sciences Complex is a comfortable blend of an old wood bookshelf, Albert Einstein poster and a reference to Kurt Cobain's legacy on the chalkboard. There's no time for a cup of coffee, though, as he moves to an adjacent office to work with Rich Novak, graduate assistant and Ph.D. candidate, at left. The two confer in a diligent manner about Novak's work with polymers.