Greg Hartt '08 (Troy, N.Y.) has always been interested in scientific research. "The idea that you could be discovering something new was always appealing to me," Hartt says. He hopes to find out a few new things about sulfur species in the atmosphere as a student researcher at Hamilton this summer.
A future chemistry or anthropology major, Hartt is working with Winslow Professor of Chemistry George Shields and Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry Karl Kirschner. Under their advisement, Hartt will be studying different sulfur based molecules and their interactions with different water clusters. He will do so by optimizing geometries, calculating energies and finding frequencies of the different molecules.
"I am continuing the computational chemistry work that I did last summer and during the past academic year regarding sulfur species in the atmosphere," Hartt explains. His findings were used in Tim Evans' '05 thesis; "We are in the process of compiling the data and writing several papers to be submitted for publication," he says.
Although only a rising sophomore, Hartt has plenty of experience working in Hamilton's chemistry lab. Last summer he worked for Professor Shields and Professor Kirschner prior to the start of his freshman year as part of the STEP/Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Summer Research Program. Hartt has also done research for the New York State Department of Health and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute during previous summers.
Hartt thinks he may go on to graduate school. For now, however, he is enjoying his time at Hamilton during the summer months. "The best part about being on campus is the close proximity to everyone else on campus," he explains. "It helps you get to know other people who might have lived on the opposite side during the past year."
-- by Emily Lemanczyk '05
