Research Opportunities for Students

Most of the faculty in the Chemistry Department have on-going research projects and welcome student researchers. You can obtain chemistry credit for your research work through courses such as CH 297 and 298 for freshman and sophomores and also CH 490 and 491 for juniors and seniors .

Research interests of faculty are listed below. For more details about a particular faculty member’s research projects check out faculty Web sites on the faculty-staff page.

Tom Getman—inorganic chemistry, synthesis and characterization of boron cluster compounds.

Yu (Leo) Liu—organic chemistry, synthesis of nano-device based catalytic systems, new cooperative catalysts development and catalytic reaction mechanism studies.

Don Marquardt—organic chemistry, synthesis of novel aromatic compounds such as fullerenes, free radical chemistry.

Frankie McCormick—organic chemistry, synthesis of compounds with novel electronic properties and radical chemistry synthetic methods.

Mark Paulsen—physical and biochemistry/theoretical chemistry, computer modeling of enzymatic reactions involved in the degradation of pesticides and other industrial products.

Lesley Putman—biochemistry, plant biochemistry, enzyme involved in phytoremediation ofbisphenol A, toluene and TCE.

Lee Roecker—inorganic chemistry, synthesis and reactivity of colbalt (III) compounds coordinated by thiourea or thioether ligands.

Eugene Wickenheiser—environmental/analytical chemistry, biotransformation of arsenic, biodiesel fuel production, chelation and transfer of metals.

Suzanne Williams—biochemistry, structure and function of proteins using various analytical techniques such as ELISA, spectrophotometry, and biocalorimetry.