Undergraduate Research
Participating in cutting edge research, whether at a computer screen or a lab bench, can be one of the most enriching experiences of your undergraduate career. Even if you think that you will not be going to graduate school or to an industry job that involves research, you should seriously consider working in a research group. The experience of working in a research group under the guidance of an experienced researcher will deepen your understanding of what you learned in the classroom. It will also sharpen your problem solving skills and ability to work independently. Additionally, you will make contacts with faculty members and graduate students who can help you with future career decisions.
Penn State chemistry majors have opportunities to work with some of the best research groups in the world on projects that have the potential to impact many of the most important issues facing our society today: energy; the environment; health and disease; the development of new materials. Each year nearly seventy-five percent of our majors work in a research group during the academic year or the summer term. Many of our student researchers receive a stipend when working during the summer term.
Interested in joining a group? Talk to your advisor. Talk to the faculty members whom you have met in your course work. Look at faculty web pages.
CHEMISTRY FACULTY
David Allara: Design, creation and analysis of molecular/polymer interfaces and nanostructures with applications including semiconductor processing, self-assembled molecular electronic devices, molecular computing, sensors, functional coatings and bio-interfaces. Tools include molecular and nanoparticle self-assembly, nanofabrication, advanced surface spectroscopies, scanning tip probes, synchrotron probes and theory calculations to aid data interpretation.
Harry Allcock: Polymer chemistry and materials synthesis; biomedical uses of synthetic polymers, hybrid organic-inorganic ring systems and macromolecules; organometallic chemistry; synthesis, reaction mechanisms, and x-ray structure studies; solid state and surface chemistry; electroactive, optical, and electronic materials; use of polymers in solid ionic conductors, energy storage, and fuel cell devices; molecular recognition by porous solids. Students should have an interest in organic or inorganic synthesis.
John Asbury: Physical and materials chemistry; ultrafast laser spectroscopy of emerging phtovoltaic materials based on conjugated polymers and colloidal quantum dots. Research opportunities include working with lasers, time-resolved vibrational spectroscopy, fabrication of solar cells, and organic synthesis of small molecules.
John Badding: Materials chemistry. Optical materials and photonics. Materials for optoelectronic devices and optical fibers. Optical fiber lasers, modulators, detectors, and chemical sensors. High pressure science. Carbon materials and their behavior under pressure with applications in hard materials and hydrogen storage.
Alan Bensi: Multinuclear NMR spectroscopy of liquids and solids; theory of magnetic resonance; simulation of spectra and NMR pulse sequences; molecular motion as revealed by NMR spectra and relaxation parameters; theory of molecular motion in condensed phases; application of selective and 2D pulse sequences to interesting chemical problems; role of water in hardening of cement phases as revealed by NMR.
Phil Bevilacqua: Biological Chemistry; characterization of RNA folding and dynamics; catalytic RNA; prediction of RNA structure from sequence; kinetic mechanism for the RNA-activated protein kinase PKR.
David Boehr: Biological and biophysical chemistry; structure and dynamics of proteins in solution. The emphasis is on understanding the role of protein dynamics in enzyme function and regulation. This information can be used for optimizing protein engineering and structure-based drug design. Our lab combines nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy with other molecular biology and biochemical/biophysical techniques to study enzymes important for bacterial and viral pathogenesis.
A. Welford Castleman: Nanoscale Science. Matter of nanoscale dimensions: laser photochemistry and photophysics of clusters; studies of reaction dynamics using femtosecond lasers; transitions from gas to condensed phase; application of clusters to problems in materials science, surface chemistry, catalysis, biological chemistry, and interstellar and atmospheric chemistry. At least one semester of physical chemistry is recommended.
Gong Chen: Our current research program covers four different areas of chemical and biological research: synthetic methodology/natural product synthesis, medicinal chemistry, chemical glycobiology, and cancer biology. Organic synthesis is the foundation of the whole program. We are interested in developing new synthetic methodologies based on transition metal catalyzed functionalization of C-H bonds. Those methodologies will be employed in the synthesis of complex natural products (especially novel non-ribosomal peptides) with interesting biological activities. Structure & activity students will be further carried out to explore their biological functions as either chemical probes or drug candidates. We are also interested in synthetic and biological studies of complex carbohydrates. Chemical synthesis of those carbohydrates and bio-conjugation with proteins, with the assistance of fluorescence imaging, will allow us to study their intrinsic function inside the cell. In addition to revealing their molecular mechanisms, we hope that these studies will facilitate the development of valuable carbohydrate-based therapeutic and diagnostic reagents. Moreover, we are interested in developing new epigenetic drug for cancer treatment.
Ken Feldman: Total synthesis of natural products; new synthetic methods based on photochemical and organotransition metal-mediated processes.
Sharon Hammes-Schiffer: Theoretical and computational investigation of chemically and biologically important processes; proton, hydride, and proton-coupled electron transfer reactions; mixed quantum/classical molecular dynamics simulations; development of theoretical and computational methods; applications to reactions in solution and proteins.
Lasse Jensen: Development and use of new theoretical and computational tools for addressing fundamental questions relevant to optical spectroscopy of bio- and nano-systems. Areas of particular interest are: resonance Raman scattering of proteins and surface-enhanced Raman scattering for chemical and biological sensing applications using metal nanostructures.
Christine Keating: Application of surface and materials chemistry to problems of biological significance. Artificial cells; model systems for studying the effect of macromolecular organization on cell function; biomimetic mineralization; multiplexed bioanalysis, self- and directed assembly of particles, integration of nontraditional materials such as biomolecules with silicon electronics.
Joseph Keiser: Chemical education, development of lab experiments and related activities for general chemistry.
Tae-Hee Lee: Single molecule biophysics. Spectroscopic/microscopic method development and applications with an emphasis on the role of dynamics in enzymatic reactions. Methods of interest include single molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer, precise localization of macromolecules by fluorescence and light scattering, single photon correlation spectroscopy, and optical trapping. Enzymes of interest include the ribosome and tRNA synthetases.
Tom Mallouk: Assembly of nanoscale inorganic materials and their applications to interesting problems in chemistry, including photocatalysis, environmental remediation, fuel cell electrochemistry, chemical sensing, molecular electronics, and catalytically driven movement.
Mark Maroncelli: Solvation and solvent effects on chemical processes, especially ultrafast electron and proton transfer reactions; unusual solvent environments such as supercritical fluids, gas-expanded liquids, and ionic liquids; ultrafast spectroscopy and computational chemistry.
Will Noid: Application of theories and methods from statistical mechanics to questions in structural biology; development, application, and theory of coarse-grained modeling for studying unfolded and intrinsically disordered proteins; aggregation phenomena in energy-related nanomaterials.
Scott Phillips: Design and synthesis of molecules with unique function; unconventional reaction methodology; analytical an bioanalytical chemistry; environmental chemistry; materials chemistry.
Ray Schaak: Solid-state and materials chemistry; nanoscience; new low-temperature synthetic routes to solid-state materials; reactivity, reactions, and reaction pathways in bulk and nanoscale solids; multi-element nanomaterials; synthesis and self-assembly of shape-controlled nanocrystals; multifunctional composites and active nanostructures; nanostructured catalysts and superconductors; biogenic routes to new solids.
Ayusman Sen: Organotransition metal chemistry; catalysis; polymer chemistry; nanotechnology; nano/microrobots; complex systems.
Scott Showalter: Biophysical Chemistry; solution NMR spectroscopy of intrinsically disordered proteins and microRNA; computational and theoretical studies of disordered protein and RNA conformational dynamics; biophysical studies of macromolecular interactions involving intrinsically disordered proteins and/or RNA. Emphasis is placed on understanding the functional implications of biomolecular dynamics and disorder for cellular signaling and the regulation of gene expression.
Dan Sykes: The design and construction of small, mobile instruments for laboratory enhancement. The instruments that we have developed over the years are rugged, lightweight, portable and inexpensive. To go with the instruments, we develop a comprehensive suite of laboratory exercises which build in level of sophistication from simple qualitative analyses to more advanced time-dependent measurements. Current and past projects include a Karl Fischer titrator, fluorimeter, NMR probe, cyclic voltammeter, bar code scanner, AM radio, and others.
Steve Weinreb: Synthesis of natural products; development of new synthetic methods; heterocyclic chemistry. Students should have at least one semester of organic chemistry.
Mary Beth Williams: Analytical techniques for separation, purification and analysis of magnetic nanomaterials and heterostructures. Inorganic supramolecular structures linked by artificial peptides for use as molecular wires and in photoinduced electron transfer and photocatalysis. We apply a range of tools, from HPLC and multidimensional NMR to isothermal titration calorimetry and time resolve emission spectroscopy to study these multimetallic structures.
