Students in CHEM 342 (Bioinorganic Chemistry and Material) learned fundamental concepts of inorganic and biological chemistry through a comprehensive project. Each student chose a bioinorganic system to study throughout the semester. Their task: apply fundamental inorganic and biological chemistry concepts to understand how their particular system works… then, teach their classmates and THE WORLD about their topic. Students wrote papers, created 3D print files, and printed their molecules. To top it off, each student created a molecular animation and educational video to teach the chemistry of their molecule. All of these materials will be soon be available YouTube and on LibreText (ChemWiki) so that others have access to these learning resources!

The Department of Chemistry and Physics has broken new ground on campus by integrating undergraduate research fully into our Chemistry Majors’ curriculum! The new “Pro-Lab” course for juniors and seniors now involves authentic, open-ended research projects! We’ve just finished this semester’s first project after 8 weeks, and we’ve made exciting new discoveries about the human copper transporter!

Way to go Chem Bells! We are so impressed and proud of your hard work. Prepare to see your data, your analysis, and your excellent writing (and your names!) in a scientific journal article soon!

The Haas Lab was featured in the Council for Undergraduate Research Blog! Check it out here:  Cottrell Scholars – A new generation

Saint Mary’s student, Emma Bridgman, spent ten weeks exploring life as a chemistry researcher at Duke Univeristy. Emma is working in the Franz lab with graduate student, Steven Conklin to understand the antibiotic properties of human Histatin peptides. She is studying how copper works with Histatin to kill fungus. When Emma returns to us in mid-August, she will continue her work with the Franz lab from afar, using the equipment at Saint Mary’s College.

Virtuoso Distillery in South Bend, IN is serious about their separation science! These two columns are fractional distillation columns, just like the ones we use in the chemistry lab at Saint Mary’s College (except a tad bigger). When I arrived, Virtuoso was “rescuing” a bad batch of wine by isolating its ethanol to make vodka!