Chemistry faculty members are committed to pursuing scholarly research, and their work has been supported by grants from government agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health and private foundations such as Research Corporation, the Petroleum Research Fund of the American Chemical Society, and the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation. Faculty members are also dedicated teachers who work hard at instilling their own love of the discipline into their students.
Karen Brewer came to Hamilton College in 1989 and teaches undergraduate courses in advanced and intermediate inorganic chemistry and general chemistry. She earned a Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her main research project is in collaboration with Ann Silversmith (Hamilton, physics) and Professor Dan Boye (Davidson College, physics). In Brewer's chemistry lab, students create glass that contains rare earth ions that have interesting spectroscopic properties. The glass is then probed in the laser spectroscopy labs in physics. Her research has been funded by the Research Corporation and the Petroleum Research Fund of the American Chemical Society.
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Elgren received his Ph.D. from Dartmouth College and brought his expertise in biophysical chemistry to Hamilton in 1993. Elgren's current efforts are dedicated to the examination of metalloproteins encapsulated in sol-gel glasses. The porous nature of these materials allow the encapsulated enzymes to retain their catalytic functions. The transparent materials also allow us to examine the properties of the enzymes using spectroscopic methods. Elgren has received numerous grants and has published articles in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Biochemistry, the Journal of Chemical Education, and The Chemical Educator. He is the past president of the Council on Undergraduate Research
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John C. Hershberger joins Hamilton as a visiting assistant professor in Chemistry. He holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Kansas, and has spent time as a postdoctoral researcher at both the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As a graduate student, Hershberger worked in Professor Helena C. Malinakova’s group where he synthesized and characterized new palladacycle complexes. Working at The University of Wisconsin-Madison, he helped develop methods for the construction of new nitrogen heterocycles. Hershberger has published papers in Organometallics, The Journal of Organic Chemistry, and Organic Letters. His research interests include the aminoboration of alkenes and the use of oxygen as a benign oxidant.
Following an AB in chemistry from Harvard and a Ph.D. from MIT, Kinnel pursued post-doctoral work for two years at Stanford before coming to Hamilton in 1966. An organic chemist, he originally pursued research in physical organic chemistry before being captivated by the chemistry of natural products, particularly from the marine environment. He was named the first associate dean of the college in 1972 and shortly thereafter also became the premedical advisor. He returned to full-time teaching and research in 1977 from his deanship, but continued advising premedical students until 1982. His fascination with the marine environment led to several sabbaticals and summers at the University of Hawaii over the next 20 years and led to a number of publications about naturally occurring compounds with unusual structures and promising biological activity. Most recently he has studied the structures of small peptides in solution, carrying out syntheses of compounds isolated from cyanobacteria, and attempting to synthesize peptidomimetics useful against breast cancer.
Saritha Nellutla received a master's degree in physical chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in Mumbai, India, and Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Florida State University. Her dissertation titled “Magnetic and High-Field EPR Studies of New Spin-Frustrated Systems” examined the effects of spin-frustration on the magnetic ground states of various transition metal ion clusters that are model systems for single molecule magnets. Nellutlacomes from North Carolina State University where she was a postdoctoral fellow studying nanomagnets with potential applications in high density magnetic memory devices and biomedical industry. She has published peer-reviewed scientific articles in Inorganic Chemistry, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Physical Review Letters and Physical Review B. Her current research interests include synthesis and characterization of nano-hybrid systems with enhanced magnetic and conducting properties.
Ning was a postdoctoral associate at Northwestern University under the mentorship of Professor SonBinh T. Nguyen from 2009 to 2012. Prior to her postdoctoral studies, she obtained a Ph.D. from the Colorado State University working with Professor Eugene Y.-X. Chen. Her research spans several areas of inorganic, organometallic, organic and polymer chemistry, and she has developed a strong interdisciplinary synthesis background. Ning has broadly applied these tools to design group IV metallocene and group VI non-metallocene catalysts for olefin polymerization and metathesis.
Rosenstein, who holds a Ph.D from Duke University, focuses on free radicals. His goal is to develop a model that will allow chemists to carry out free radical reactions to form a preponderance of one stereoisomeric product. With the methodology he is currently creating, Rosenstein would be able to efficiently produce the single stereoisomer that is effective in pharmaceutical medications.He has published articles in Tetrahedron Letters, Synthetic Communications, and the Journal of Chemical Education. He has received grants from several agencies such as the American Chemical Society/ Petroleum Research Fund and the National Science Foundation. He is a member of the American Chemical Society, Phi Lambda Upsilon, the Council on Undergraduate Research, and Sigma Xi.
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Peter Sandusky received his bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Michigan. His early research experiences focused on biological applications of EPR spectroscopy at Stanford and Michigan State, then he returned to Ann Arbor to study the biological applications of NMR spectroscopy. Sandusky later worked for 10 years as a NMR facility manager at a number of universities including Purdue and Tulane. Since 2009 he has taught physical chemistry as an adjunct professor at Boston College, and physical chemistry and general chemistry as a visiting professor at Eckerd College. Sandusky’s research focuses on the application of NMR spectroscopy for the statistical analysis of “biofluid” populations, such as populations of urine samples, or microbial growth media samples.
Adam W. Van Wynsberghe joined Hamilton in 2009 after two years at the University of California-San Diego where he was a NIH NRSA postdoctoral fellow. He received a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Ohio Wesleyan University in 2001 and was a NSF pre-doctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he completed his Ph.D. in biophysics in 2007. Van Wynsberghe's research interests center around the use of theoretical and computational techniques to study biophysical problems from both basic and applied perspectives. Currently, he is investigating the nature of protein-protein and protein-ligand interactions, the origins and roles of conformational changes and dynamics in biomolecular systems, and the dynamical aspects of enzyme catalysis.
More about Adam Van Wynsberghe ...Back to chemistry overview.
Chemistry classes at Hamilton are small to facilitate individual mentoring and to give all students research opportunities. Even first-semester general chemistry courses have as few as 16 students. All 100- and 200-level courses include intensive laboratory training where students develop proper techniques and problem-solving skills.
Students and professors in the Chemistry Department have published 17 papers in peer-reviewed journals over a recent five-year period.
In recent years, nine Hamilton chemistry students have won 14 prestigious national awards for their research, including six Goldwater Scholarships, two Fulbrights and a Watson.
Hamilton has regularly hosted the Molecular Education and Research Consortium in Undergraduate Computational Chemistry (MERCURY). The Chemistry Department houses supercomputers and linux clusters for this National Science Foundation-funded consortium, a group of eight liberal arts colleges from across the nation.
Hamilton graduates 15 to 20 chemistry, biochemistry and chemical physics majors each year. Half of those graduates successfully pursue graduate study; another 25 percent pursue other forms of postgraduate professional training.
Chemistry classes at Hamilton are small to facilitate individual mentoring and to give all students research opportunities. Even first-semester general chemistry courses have as few as 16 students. All 100- and 200-level courses include intensive laboratory training where students develop proper techniques and problem-solving skills.
Students and professors in the Chemistry Department have published 17 papers in peer-reviewed journals over a recent five-year period.
In recent years, nine Hamilton chemistry students have won 14 prestigious national awards for their research, including six Goldwater Scholarships, two Fulbrights and a Watson.
Hamilton has regularly hosted the Molecular Education and Research Consortium in Undergraduate Computational Chemistry (MERCURY). The Chemistry Department houses supercomputers and linux clusters for this National Science Foundation-funded consortium, a group of eight liberal arts colleges from across the nation.
Hamilton graduates 15 to 20 chemistry, biochemistry and chemical physics majors each year. Half of those graduates successfully pursue graduate study; another 25 percent pursue other forms of postgraduate professional training.
Chemistry classes at Hamilton are small to facilitate individual mentoring and to give all students research opportunities. Even first-semester general chemistry courses have as few as 16 students. All 100- and 200-level courses include intensive laboratory training where students develop proper techniques and problem-solving skills.
Students and professors in the Chemistry Department have published 17 papers in peer-reviewed journals over a recent five-year period.
In recent years, nine Hamilton chemistry students have won 14 prestigious national awards for their research, including six Goldwater Scholarships, two Fulbrights and a Watson.
Hamilton has regularly hosted the Molecular Education and Research Consortium in Undergraduate Computational Chemistry (MERCURY). The Chemistry Department houses supercomputers and linux clusters for this National Science Foundation-funded consortium, a group of eight liberal arts colleges from across the nation.
Hamilton graduates 15 to 20 chemistry, biochemistry and chemical physics majors each year. Half of those graduates successfully pursue graduate study; another 25 percent pursue other forms of postgraduate professional training.
Chemistry classes at Hamilton are small to facilitate individual mentoring and to give all students research opportunities. Even first-semester general chemistry courses have as few as 16 students. All 100- and 200-level courses include intensive laboratory training where students develop proper techniques and problem-solving skills.
Students and professors in the Chemistry Department have published 17 papers in peer-reviewed journals over a recent five-year period.
In recent years, nine Hamilton chemistry students have won 14 prestigious national awards for their research, including six Goldwater Scholarships, two Fulbrights and a Watson.
Hamilton has regularly hosted the Molecular Education and Research Consortium in Undergraduate Computational Chemistry (MERCURY). The Chemistry Department houses supercomputers and linux clusters for this National Science Foundation-funded consortium, a group of eight liberal arts colleges from across the nation.
Hamilton graduates 15 to 20 chemistry, biochemistry and chemical physics majors each year. Half of those graduates successfully pursue graduate study; another 25 percent pursue other forms of postgraduate professional training.
Chemistry classes at Hamilton are small to facilitate individual mentoring and to give all students research opportunities. Even first-semester general chemistry courses have as few as 16 students. All 100- and 200-level courses include intensive laboratory training where students develop proper techniques and problem-solving skills.
Students and professors in the Chemistry Department have published 17 papers in peer-reviewed journals over a recent five-year period.
In recent years, nine Hamilton chemistry students have won 14 prestigious national awards for their research, including six Goldwater Scholarships, two Fulbrights and a Watson.
Hamilton has regularly hosted the Molecular Education and Research Consortium in Undergraduate Computational Chemistry (MERCURY). The Chemistry Department houses supercomputers and linux clusters for this National Science Foundation-funded consortium, a group of eight liberal arts colleges from across the nation.
Hamilton graduates 15 to 20 chemistry, biochemistry and chemical physics majors each year. Half of those graduates successfully pursue graduate study; another 25 percent pursue other forms of postgraduate professional training.
