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 Undergraduate Research

Get involved

The Department of Chemistry at The University of Alabama emphasizes a hands-on approach to undergraduate instruction. As part of this effort, the department strongly promotes undergraduate research. The chemistry department faculty are involved in research projects in all of the major areas of chemistry: organic, inorganic, physical, analytical, and biochemistry. In addition, many faculty research interests involve interdisciplinary projects such as materials science, biomolecular products, and green chemistry. To see what types of research are currently going on in the department, check out the faculty pages.

Students interested in beginning a research project with a faculty member, should contact him or her directly. For general questions about how to get involved in undergraduate research, contact Prof. Michael Jennings.

Information for current undergraduate researchers.

Jason Spruell prepares sulfoxide/alkene co-crystals in the Blackstock lab.

Win awards

Students performing chemical research have dominated undergraduate research awards on campus and have won several national awards including Barry M. Goldwater Fellowships and places on the USA Today All-Academic Team. The undergraduate research program is open to students in all areas of the natural sciences and engineering, not just chemistry students.

Travel to meetings

Undergraduate research students have presented the results of their research at national meetings of American Chemical Society and the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology, at regional American Chemical Society meetings, and at a meetings of a variety of specialized societies and associations. In recent years, these presentations have resulted in students traveling to a variety of locations including Anaheim, San Diego, New Orleans, England and Europe.

Fatima Carmichael presents a poster at the Atlanta ACS Meeting

Get published

Recent examples of research publications with undergraduate co-authors (bolded):

"Synthesis and Characterization of Water-Soluble Silver and Palladium Imidazol-2-ylidene Complexes with Non-Coordinated Anionic Substituents, " Moore, L. R.; Cooks, S. M; Anderson, M. S.; Schanz, H.-J.; Griffin, S. T.; Rogers, R. D.; Kirk, M. C; Shaughnessy, K. H. Organometallics, 25, 5151-5158 (2006).

"High-dose chromium(III) supplementation has no effects on body mass and composition while altering plasma hormone and triglycerides concentrations." Bennett, R.; Adams, B.; French, A.; Neggers, Y.; Vincent, J. B. Biol. Trace Element Res. 113, 53-66 (2006).

"Long alkyl chain quaternary ammonium-based ionic liquids and potential applications." Pernak, J.; Smiglak, M.; Griffin, S. T.; Hough, W. L.; Wilson, T. B.; Pernak, A.; Zabielska-Matejuk, J.; Fojutowski, A.; Kita, K.; Rogers, R. D. Green Chem. 8, 798-806 (2006).

"Pyrazine-N,N'-dioxide / tetracyanoethylene electron donor-acceptor bonding and the effect of donor steric demand and symmetry on the cocrystal assembly" T. J. Kucharski, J. R. Oxsher, S. C. Blackstock Tetrahedron Letters 47, 4569 (2006).

"Bulky alkylphosphines with neopentyl substituents as ligands in the amination of aryl bromides and chlorides." Hill, L. L.; Moore, L. R.; Huang, R.; Craciun, R.; Vincent, A. P.; Dixon, D. A.; Chou, J.; Woltermann, C. J.; Shaughnessy, K. H. J. Org. Chem. 71, 5117-5125 (2006).

"Solution State Structure Determination of Silicate Oligomers by 29Si NMR Spectroscopy and Molecular Modeling." Cho, H.; Felmy, A. R.; Craciun, R.; Keenum, J. P.; Shah, N.; Dixon, D. A. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 128, 2324-2335 (2006).

"Experimental and computational study of steric and electronic effects on the coordination of bulky, water-soluble alkylphosphines to palladium under reducing conditions: Correlation to catalytic activity," DeVasher, R. B.; Spruell, J. M.; Dixon, D. A.; Griffin, S. T.; Broker, G. A.; Shaughnessy, K. H. Organometallics, 22, 962 (2005).

"Self-assembly of magnetic biofunctional nanoparticles." Sun, X.; Thode, C. J.; Mabry, J. K.; Harrell, J. W.; Nikles, D. E.; Sun, K.; Wang, L. M. J. Appl. Phys. 97, 10Q901/1-10Q901/3 (2005).

"Chromium-containing biomimetic cation triaqua-mu 3-oxo-mu-hexapropionatotrichromium(III) inhibits colorectal tumor formation in rats" Pickering, A.; Chang, C.; Vincent, J. B., J. Inorg. Biochem. 98, 1303 (2004).

"Absorption of the biomimetic chromium cation triaqua-mu(3)-oxo-mu-hexapropionatotrichromium(III) in rats," Clodfelder, B. J.; Chang, C.; Vincent, J. B. Biol. Trace Element Res. 98, 159 (2004).

"Nutritional supplement chromium picolinate causes sterility and lethal mutations in Drosophila melanogaster," Hepburn, D.D.D.; Xiao, J.R.; Bindom, S., Vincent, J.B.; O'Donnell, J. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci, USA, 100, 3766 (2003).

"Disassembly and degradation of photosystem I in an in vitro system are multievent, metal-dependent processes,"  Henderson, J.N.; Zhang, J.Y.; Evans, B.W.; Redding K. J. Biol. Chem. 278, 39978 (2003).

"On the solubilization of water with ethanol in hydrophobic hexafluorophosphate ionic liquids," Swatloski, R.P.; Visser, A.E.; Reichert, W.M.;Broker, G.A.; Farina, L.M.; Holbrey, J.D.; Rogers R.D. Green Chem. 4, 81 (2002).

"The stability of the biomimetic cation triaqua-mu-oxohexapropionatotrichromium(III) in vivo in rats," Shute, A. A.; Chakov, N. E.; Vincent, J. B. Polyhedron, 20, 2241 (2001).

"The trail of chromium(III) in vivo from the blood to the urine: the roles of transferrin and chromodulin," Clodfelder, B.J.; Emamaullee, J.; Hepburn, D.D.D.; Chakov, N.E.; Nettles, H.S.; Vincent, J.B. J. Biol. Inorg. Chem. 6, 608 (2001).

"Solvation of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate in aqueous ethanol - a green solution for dissolving 'hydrophobic' ionic liquids," Swatloski, R.P.; Visser, A.E.; Reichert, W.M.;Broker, G.A.; Farina, L.M.; Holbrey, J.D.; Rogers R.D. Chem. Commun. 2070 (2001).

"The binding of trivalent chromium to low-molecular-weight chromium-binding substance (LMWCr) and the transfer of chromium from transferrin and chromium picolinate to LMWCr," Sun, Y.; Ramirez, J.; Woski, S. A.; Vincent, J. B. J. Biol. Inorg. Chem. 5, 129 (2000).

"pH-Dependent Partitioning in Room Temperature Ionic Liquids Provides a Link to Traditional Solvent Extraction Behavior," Visser, A. E.; Swatloski, R. P.; Rogers, R. D. Green Chemistry 2, 1-4 (2000).


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