In the News

The Magic of Chemistry is back on the road with a visit to Ms. Jennifer Sharp-Knott''s classes at Floyd County HIgh School.  Exciting presentations were held for both the Chemistry and Earth Science classes and the trip was made even more special since Aria Dumler from our Department is student teaching  there under the supervision of Ms. Sharp-Knott.

Alex Hawks (back row, right), a 2018 graduate of the Department of Chemistry at Radford University and a fifth-year graduate student in the Department of Genetics and Biochemistry at Clemson University, won the best poster award at the 7^th US-EU Conference on Endogenous DNA Damage, November 2022.  The winners were congratulated by Dr. Tomas Lindahl, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

Students and faculty gathered on the main floor of the Center for the Sciences to show off their creative side by carving and painting pumpkins. This Jack-O-Lantern Jubilee was hosted by our wonderful faculty members Dr. Cindy Burkhardt and Dr. Kim Lane. This get together allowed the students to unwind and have some fun during this Fall semester.  

Elizabeth Lee and Kiersten Smith, both junior biology majors,  presented their research at the 2022 Southeastern Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The research, done under mentorship of Dr. Tim Fuhrer, focused on the computional chemical analysis of a new form of fullerene-related molecule and their oral presentation was entitled  “Molecular orbital study of a new class of large cage fullertube”.

Students and faculty went to the National American Chemical Society Meeting in San Diego to present undergraduate research. Maddie Bowman, mentored by Dr. Francis Webster, presented her environmentally focused work. Students Luc White, Alyssa Jones, and Cole Presson presented posters on their polymer research mentored by Dr. Amy Balija and Dr. Timothy Fuhrer. Rayshell Torres-Santana presented her biochemistry research that she performed with Dr. Kim Lane.  Dr. Sarah Kennedy organized a symposium for individuals from a broad range of institutions to share about their inclusive excellence work in chemical education.

Dr. Harakas and Lizabeth Thomas (chemistry graduate, 2021) published an article in The Journal of Chemical Education titled “Teaching Your Students How to Manipulate Molten Glass. Lampworking: Chemistry’s Original “Maker Movement”. This manuscript was created to help instructors introduce lampworking into their Chemistry courses.  This publication has been selected as a supplemental (digital) cover for the Journal of Chemical Education. The full text can be viewed at https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c00717.