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Ten current and former Hamilton Chemistry Department faculty members co-authored a chapter titled “A Departmental Focus on High Impact Undergraduate Research Experiences” in a recently published edition of the American Chemical Society Symposium Series dedicated to “Developing and Sustaining a Successful Undergraduate Research Program.”

The Kinnel research group – Sky Aulita ’15, Krystina Choinski ’15, Tara Hansen ’14, Shakil Hossain ’14, Laura McCormick’15 and Bryce Timm ’15 – participated in a symposium for undergraduate organic chemistry research students on July 2 at Hobart and William Smith (HWS) Colleges.

Alex Thompson ’13 has an impressive resume, particularly for someone who has only just completed his undergraduate degree. He’s worked on multiple research projects in chemistry and biology, spent a summer working at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin, interned at biotechnology company Genentech in San Francisco, co-authored a paper in The Journal of Organic Chemistry, and co-authored a chapter in the recently released book Hetereocyclic Chemistry in Drug Discovery. This fall he’ll be adding to his impressive list of accomplishments and beginning a Ph.D. program in chemistry at Yale University.

Substantial improvements in cancer detection and treatment have been made over the years, and Hamilton students are concentrating in that research area as well.  Traditional cancer treatments, such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy, are relatively invasive and attack cancerous and non-cancerous cells alike.  These techniques may diminish or eliminate the cancer, but not without potentially detrimental side effects that leave the body distressed and fatigued.  New therapies are being developed to specifically target cancerous cells in order to have safer and more efficient treatments.  

Daniel Mermelstein ’14 is conducting research this summer on a protein produced by the fetus, alpha-fetoprotein, that might hold the key to a reduction in breast cancer.

At the end of their summer research, students from Hamilton, Colgate University. and Hobart and William Smith Colleges who did projects in organic chemistry gathered at Hamilton to present their results in a symposium on July 25. Each student spoke for 15 minutes and then responded to questions. A cookout at the Babbitt Pavilion followed.

Hamilton hosted the annual meeting of MAALACT, the Middle Atlantic Association of Liberal Arts Chemsitry Teachers, on Oct. 7-8. Founded in 1967, the organization includes chemistry faculty from liberal arts colleges in the Middle Atlantic states and eastern N.Y. that gather yearly to discuss a variety of curricular matters, laboratory safety, how to get grants and other matters of interest.

Silas D. Childs Professor of Chemistry Emeritus Robin B. Kinnel presented a poster titled “Two Unusual Chlorinated Metabolites from Lyngbya bouillonii Revealed by MALDI Analysis” at the 52nd national meeting of the American Society of Pharmacognosy on Aug. 1 in San Diego. The work, accomplished primarily while he was on sabbatical leave at Scripps Institution of Oceanography during the spring of 2010, capitalized on a new technique for discovering potentially useful natural products.

Chemistry Professor Robin Kinnel has recently discovered the chemical compound dichlorobouillonamide, which is released by a cyanobacteria in the Lyngbya family. The chemical has never been studied in depth, and it is possible that dichlorobouillonamide has potential applications in pain treatment. This summer Aaron Danilack ’13 and Jeffrey Blackburn ’13 are working with Kinnel to carry out a laboratory synthesis of dichlorobouillonamide.

Robin Kinnel, the Silas D. Childs Professor of Chemistry Emeritus, presented a paper at the 2010 International Chemical Congress of the Pacific Basin Societies (PacifiChem) on Dec. 18, in Honolulu. In his presentation, he discussed work carried out while on leave at Scripps Institute of Oceanography and at Hamilton.