Under the guidance of Assistant Professor of Chemistry Nicole Snyder, Taylor Adams ’11 and Kevin Graepel ’11 spent the summer working on the development of a carbohydrate-based vaccine for glioblastoma multiforme, the most aggressive type of primary brain tumor. More ...

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Camille Jones has been awarded a two-year, $198,000 National Science Foundation grant for the development and evaluation of a course in solid state chemistry for seniors majoring in chemistry and chemical physics. The course will be the first of its kind among Hamilton’s peer institutions.
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Assistant Professor of Chemistry Nicole Snyder and Kevin W. Graepel ’11 published a chapter in Named Reactions for Carbocyclic Ring Formations edited by Jie Jack Li of Bristol Myers Squibb and E. J. Corey of Harvard University (Nobel Prize 1990). The chapter, “Ring Closing Metathesis,” focuses on the use of the Grubbs and Schrock catalysts (Nobel Prize 2005) to prepare carbocycles (ring structures containing only carbon atoms). More ...

To the naked eye, the simple glass beads all over the lab of Meghan Carter ’12 are not very exciting. However, under UV light, the beads glow different colors depending on their composition. Working under Associate Dean of Students for Academics and Professor of Chemistry Karen Brewer, Carter is trying to increase the fluorescence of these beads. More ...

Over the past few years, people have become aware of a health threat in an unexpected place: traces of bisphenol-A (or BPA) that leach from reusable plastic water bottles. Because of his interest in endocrinology and toxicology, Dan Brimberry ’13 has decided to further pursue this subject with funding from an Emerson grant and guidance from Timothy Elgren, professor of chemistry. More ...

The Ninth Annual National MERCURY Conference on Computational Chemistry, devoted solely to undergraduates who are working on research projects in computational chemistry, was held at Hamilton from Aug. 1 through Aug. 3. The program offered an opportunity for undergraduates to learn about the breadth of research in computational chemistry, particularly in interdisciplinary topics and to discuss their work with other undergraduate computational chemists as well as some leaders in the field. More ...

In a chemistry lab, Eric Kuenstner ’12 and Jack Trieu ’11 place a round-bottom flask on an instrument called a rotovap. With a push of a button the flask begins spinning, making the solution flow from the flask through coiled tubes. “It always makes me feel like a mad scientist,” Kuenstner laughs, and Trieu nods agreement. But the result of this seemingly diabolical processing is hardly sinister; the students are looking to find the most favorable conditions for a [2,3] sigmatropic rearrangement to occur. More ...

Jason McGavin ’12 observes the organic balls that seem to be bleeding dye into the surrounding liquid. But what caused the destruction? In this microscopic game of Space Invaders, it is the destructive entity that is the aggressor: piscidins, a type of bacteria-killing protein found in fish. McGavin is looking at two specific piscidins and attempting to relate their destructive function to their chemical structure. More ...

A new, active metabolite called cryptomaldamide was discovered by Robin Kinnel, the Silas D. Childs Professor of Chemistry Emeritus, while he was on leave at Scripps Institute of Oceanography during the spring semester. This summer Kinnel is pursuing the synthesis of cryptomaldamide with University of Maastricht graduate student Marta Kolodziejczak who comes to Hamilton through the Junior Year in France Program.
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When viewing our existence from a molecular level, one miniscule change can have enormous repercussions. Carbon dioxide, for example, is the natural waste product of our respiration; but carbon monoxide is toxic to us when inhaled. Similarly, a molecule’s orientation can also affect the way the body processes it. This summer, Cara Vennari ’12 is working under Associate Professor of Chemistry Ian Rosenstein to expand ring molecules that have three carbon atoms in them to contain five. More ...