{"id":105,"date":"2017-10-27T22:38:50","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T22:38:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-chemistry\/research\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T16:39:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T16:39:38","slug":"research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/chemistry\/research\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching and Research"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"row\"><div class=\"primary-content medium-wrapper\"><section class=\"video-embed block-container\" >\n\t    <div class=\"video-embed__container\">\n    \t<div class=\"embed-container\">\n    \t    \t<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Researching new molecules\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uPmv11QLSRI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> \n    \t<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">All chemistry majors are strongly encouraged to participate in a research experience during their undergraduate years.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Chemistry faculty members maintain vigorous undergraduate research programs that include both summer and academic year opportunities. Information about&nbsp;Current Research Projects&nbsp;in the Macalester Science Division is available on the Science and Research Office (SRO) website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Summer research is an integral part of the chemistry major for students anticipating entry into the chemical industry, graduate school, or medical school. The&nbsp;<a class=\"more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/sro\/\">Science And Research Office<\/a>&nbsp;(SRO) also has information about summer research opportunities in a variety of industrial companies, as well as at other universities and colleges throughout the U.S. and worldwide. Joan Toohey, director of SRO, is available for individual consultation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the past five years, fully&nbsp;75% of our chemistry majors have gained research experience as undergraduates, 85% of them doing research at Macalester itself.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div><div class=\"secondary-content small-wrapper\">\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Student-Faculty Joint Publications<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Liu, A. Y., Calicdan, X. A., Glover, G. N., Luo, X., Barroso, G. T., Hoppe, B. K., Boyle, K. M., Witus, L., S. Investigation of the Effect of Turn Residues on Tetrapeptide Aldol Catalysts with \u03b2-Turn Propensity. ACS Omega 2022, 7, 45336\u201345340.<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Liu, X.; Waters, R.; Gilbert, H. E.; Barroso, G. T.; Boyle, K. M.; Witus, L. S. The Role of \u03b2-Hairpin Conformation in Ester Hydrolysis Peptide Catalysts Based on a TrpZip Scaffold. RSC Adv. 2021, 11, 23714\u201323718<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Gest, A. M.; Aguiluz, E. M.; Mays, M. T.; Liu, X.; Neidhart, E. K.; Witus, L. S. A colorimetric competitive displacement assay for the evaluation of catalytic peptides. Organic &amp; Biomolecular Chemistry 2017, 15, 10160\u201310163.<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Professor Ronald Brisbois, Alexandra Bergan (Century Community College), Aubrey Ellison \u201912 (Plymouth, Minn.), Percy Griffin \u201913 (Tema, Ghana), Kent Hackbarth \u201913 (Wausau, Wis.), and Steven Larson \u201913 (Ripon, Wis.) co-authored \u201cThermal, Non-catalyzed Huisgen Cycloaddition for the Preparation of 4,5-bis(trimethylsilyl)-1H-1,2,3,-triazoles,\u201d which appeared in <em>Tetrahedron Letters<\/em> in 2012.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Professor Keith Kuwata, Professor Patrick Dussault, two other collaborators at the University of Nebraska\u2013Lincoln, Solaire Finkenstaedt-Quinn \u201910 (Eau Claire, Wis.), Ilhan Findik \u201909 (Kyrenia, Cyprus), and Emily Sliz \u201908 (Dripping Springs, Texas) co-authored \u201cGeneration of Singlet Oxygen from Fragmentation of Monoactivated 1,1- Dihydroperoxides,\u201d which appeared in the <em>Journal of Organic<\/em> <em>Chemistry<\/em> in 2012.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Professor Kathryn Splan, K.F. Speer \u201910 (Philadelphia, Pa.), C.L. Cosimini \u201909 (St. Paul, Minn.) co-authored \u201cCharacterization of a Bivalent, Smac-based Peptide that features Sequences Specific to both the BIR2 and BIR3 Domains of the X-linked Inhibitor of Apoptosis Protein,\u201d which appeared in <em>Biopolymers: Peptide <\/em><em>Science<\/em> in 2012.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Professor Kathryn Splan, P.K. Goldberg \u201911 (Ann Arbor, Mich.) and T.J. Pundsack co-authored \u201cPhotophysical Investigation of Neutral and Diprotonated Free-base Bis(Arylethynyl)-porphyrins,\u201d which appeared in <em>Journal of Physical Chemistry A <\/em>in 2011.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Professors Thomas Varberg and Keith Kuwata co-authored with Andrew Bendelsmith \u201913 (West St. Paul, Minn.) a paper titled \u201cMeasurement of the Compressibility Factor of Gases: A Physical Chemistry Laboratory Experiment,\u201d which appeared in the <em>Journal of Chemical Education<\/em> in 2011.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Professor Keith Kuwata, Brianna Kujala \u201906 (Hastings, Minn.), Zachary Morrow \u201908 (Niarada, Mont.), and Elena Tonc \u201913 (Osijek, Croatia) co-authored \u201cQuantum Chemical and RRKM\/Master Equation Studies of Cyclopropene Ozonolysis,\u201d which appeared in <em>Computational and Theoretical Chemistry<\/em> in 2011.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Professor Rebecca Hoye, Gretchen Anderson, \u201805 (Minnetonka, Minn.), Susan Brown \u201907 (Kingston, Jamaica), and Erica Schultz \u201908 (Owatonna, Minn.) co-authored \u201cTotal Synthesis of Clathculins A and B\u201d which appeared in the Journal of Organic Chemistry in 2010.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All chemistry majors are strongly encouraged to participate in a research experience during their undergraduate years. Chemistry faculty members maintain vigorous undergraduate research programs that include both summer and academic year opportunities. Information about&nbsp;Current Research Projects&nbsp;in the Macalester Science Division is available on the Science and Research Office (SRO) website. Summer research is an integral [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":913,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-105","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/913"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1309,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/105\/revisions\/1309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}