Dear Carroll College Chemistry Alumni and Supporters:
We hope you and your family are healthy and enjoying autumn. We are in the middle of the fall semester, and we wanted to update you on what has been happening in our department since our fall 2020 newsletter.
Student Highlight – Summer Research at the Flathead Lake Biological Station
Every fall semester the chemistry department hosts a research and prestigious awards informational session. At the informational session students learn about both on-campus and off-campus research opportunities and prestigious awards. Experiences like these are what allow our alumni to differentiate themselves as they enter the competitive employment environment or apply for pre-professional schools. The chemistry faculty encourage students to apply for these opportunities and we actively support our students as they craft their application materials.
This year general chemistry student Elizabeth Ortiz-Espinoza spent the summer between her freshman and sophomore year working as a paid research intern at the Flathead Lake Biological Station (FLBS). Elizabeth assisted with the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Rules of Life research project under the guidance of FLBS Director Jim Elser and Associate Researcher Jana Isanta-Navarro and Benedicta Bars. The Rules of Life project is “…investigating if there are fundamental rules that link the biochemical properties of cells to dynamical processes in ecosystems.”
Carroll Prioritizes Safety and In-Person Education
The Carroll College chemistry faculty routinely assist our students as they apply for internships, summer research experiences, and post-graduation opportunities. This summer, several of our students were selected for research experience for undergraduates (REU) across the country. However, few were able to participate in the event due to the pandemic. Thankfully, chemistry senior Olivia Sablan was able to participate. She shares what her Summer 2020 REU experience was like:
"This summer I had the opportunity to conduct research through the Clean Energy Bridge to Research Program with the University of Washington. Due to COVID-19, this research experience for undergraduates (REU) was moved to an online program.
I virtually worked with Ting Cao, Assistant Professor of Materials Science & Engineering, in his materials theory group to design and engineer two-dimensional nanomaterials by first-principle calculations. To celebrate the summer research completed at UW, each student participated in a brief lightning talk discussing our findings for the University of Washington’s Virtual Summer Research Symposium.
I learned so much about materials science and theoretical work during this research experience. The skills I acquired while working with UW’s supercomputer will be helpful for future computational work that I hope to do in graduate school. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to participate in this program, and I could not have been successful in this program this summer without the endless support of Carroll’s chemistry department."
~ Olivia Sablan, Class of 2021
A link to Olivia’s presentation can be found here.
Modern Chemical Instruments are an Important Feature of the Program
The chemistry department has continued to acquire new equipment and instrumentation to support our exemplary undergraduate educational environment. The chemistry department has been able to acquire modern instrumentation thanks to faculty grant writing efforts, generous private donors, and an institutional commitment from Carroll to a strong chemistry program. We have, and students routinely independently operate, several instruments that are uncommon at primarily undergraduate institutions.
Photos left to right: a) Student loading sample into our NMR spectrometer (Bruker Ascend Aeon 400 MHz). b) Student preparing air sensitive compounds inside the glovebox (MBraun-Unilab Pro SP). c) Student loading sample on our GC-MS (Shimadzu Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer-QP2010 SE with auto-sampler and direct sample injection (DI) capabilities.
In addition to the instruments pictured above, students also regularly use: Agilent 1260 Infinity Quaternary Pump HPLC with auto-sampler and fraction collector, ThermoFisher iS10 FTIR spectrometer and diamond ATR accessory, CH 600E Instruments electrochemical analyzer potentiostat/galvanostat, HP 8453 diode array UV-Visible spectrophotometer, Perkin-Elmer Avio 200 inductively-coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer, and numerous rotary evaporators (for rapid low-pressure distillation).
Unlike some schools, this instrumentation is not simply for a few students to use on faculty research projects; it is all regularly used in course-based learning across our curriculum. Therefore, this instrumentation provides a direct benefit to all students who take chemistry courses. The chemistry faculty at Carroll College believe that all students should receive exceptional training on and direct access to modern instrumentation.
Chemistry Faculty Support Local Elementary Teachers
The chemistry faculty often provide educational experiences for K-12 students in the Helena community. These educational experiences include demonstrations at local schools and activities here on campus. In-person visits to local schools were not possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but faculty were still able to engage with students online. Professor Rowley led a group of elementary students through an activity where they acted out the principles of collision theory and learned about chemical kinetics. Professor Rowley created a follow-up video for the students who were unable to participate in the live-streamed event which can be viewed here.
Photos left to right: a) Prof. Pharr builds orange batteries with SciGirls. b) Prof. Rowley during an online event showing students how to set up the chemical kinetics experiment using bleach and blue food coloring. c) Kitchen experiment investigating the impact of temperature on reaction kinetics.
Faculty Continue to Provide Transformative Experiences for Students During Summer and Semester Research
Carroll’s motto Non scholae, sed vitae (Not for school, but for life) is a reminder that the modern challenges college graduates will face are open-ended, loosely-defined, and multi-disciplinary; therefore, it is essential that a Carroll College education equips our students with the skills to deal with these challenges. One of the ways chemistry faculty achieve this is by mentoring students on independent research projects. To continue to provide these transformative experiences to our students, the chemistry department has initiated the planning process for raising funds to create endowed faculty professorships.
"Independent research with faculty at Carroll College launched my career in chemistry and honed the skills I needed to succeed in a chemistry doctoral program. At Carroll, the professors taught me to design experiments, think critically, communicate scientific information effectively, write grant proposals, and to question everything!"
~ Lauren Palys, Class of 2018
Lauren is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry at Oregon State University (OSU). Her most recent publication is on Molecular Intermediate in the Directed Formation of a Zeolitic Metal–Organic Framework.
The endowed faculty professorships will allow us to increase the number and quality of student research experiences we provide. Please contact Vice President for Institutional Advancement Michael McMahon at msmcmahon@carroll.edu, 406-447-5528, if you are interested in learning more about how you can support our efforts to create endowed faculty professorships or help with other student scholarship opportunities.
Keeping Updated on News from the Chemistry Department
Did you miss our Summer 2020 Newsletter? Previous newsletters and other news articles about the chemistry department can be found on our Chemistry News page. In addition, regular updates regarding our department can be found on our Instagram & Past Events page.
We are extremely grateful for the outreach and engagement we have seen from our alumni and supporters. Many of the transformative experiences we provide our students are made possible through your generosity. We also appreciate your feedback, insights, and ideas which are also important for the future success of our programs.
Please feel free to reach out to any of us via email and you can also follow us on Instagram @Carroll_College_Chemistry.
Sincerely,
The Carroll College Chemistry Faculty