Research Opportunities

Our department highly values and promotes undergraduate research. Participating in research will provide you with the opportunity to collaborate closely with professors, as well as with other undergraduate and graduate researchers, across various subdisciplines of chemistry.  Research enables you to apply the knowledge gained in the classroom setting to real-world experiments. Many of our students often present their research findings at local and national conferences, and some even coauthor peer-reviewed publications.

Interested in undergraduate research opportunities in the Department of Chemistry? Follow these steps:

       1. Pick a subject. Chemistry research usually falls into one of the five classic areas of chemistry: Organic, Inorganic, Analytical, Physical, and Biological. Your General Chemistry courses were a combination of all these topics, and your advanced chemistry courses cover each topic in more depth. Think about which courses you’ve enjoyed most to help you figure out what kind of research you might like. You should also review the web pages of professors in the department to read about research projects that are active in their group.

       2. Meet with a professor. Decide which discipline (or project) might be of most interest to you, and communicate with a faculty member in that discipline via email, phone, or in-person. Let the professor know of your interest in undergraduate research, and talk about whether you can join his/her group. Try to do this well before pre-registration!

       3. Write a research plan. With your professor, decide on your research objectives and plan how much time you will spend each week working on your new project. It’s probably best to start off in Chem 4515.

CourseCredit HoursHours / week you will work
CHEM 451513
CHEM 451626
CHEM 451739

       4. Register. The professor supervising your research will request a seat for you in one of the classes listed above. There isn’t a set meeting time; you should set up a weekly schedule with your professor.

       5. Write a paper. Every student participating in undergraduate research is required to write a research paper at the end of the semester. The paper does not have page length restrictions, but typically runs between 3 and 7 pages. It should clearly describe the objective, methods and results of the research that was conducted and be written in the scientific format with literature citations, figures, and tables as appropriate (your research mentor will provide guidance).

Other Research Opportunities