When Heir Jordan, a senior chemistry major, found out that the Southeastern Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society (SERMACS) fell on UTC’s fall break, he wasn’t sure he wanted to go, but after seeing presentations from undergraduates to professionals and meeting Nobel Prize winner Sir Harold Kroto, he’s glad that he did.
“First, I thought I wasn’t sure if I could do it. Then I saw that the date fell on fall break, so I didn’t want to go, but I thought I should go and present the work at the conference. I thought maybe I could go get in and get out, but once I got there and got to talking and going to presentations, I was glad I was there. There were a lot of big chemical companies, graduate schools, pharmacy schools, which I’m interested in. I’m glad I went. It was a good experience and I made a lot of connections,” said Jordan.
UTC takes 10-12 students to the annual SERMACS conference. This year’s conference was in Nashville from October 16 – 19. Students had the opportunity to attend talks from fellow undergraduates, graduate students, and professors as well as give their own talks, either presentations or poster presentations.
“They got to listen to a variety of research talks about what kinds of things are currently going on. There was also a graduate school fair on Sunday, and there were schools from across the country and they were able to talk to all those representatives about what’s going on at those schools. That was really exciting,” said Dr. Gretchen Potts, who also attended and presented at the conference.
The students that went to SERMACS all participated in the Department of Chemistry’s 10-week summer research program. As a part of the program, students complete 10 weeks of research, working 40 hours each week.
“It’s a job. It is intense research immersion, where they are not only working on a project, they are working with other students. They give talks about their research, what they’ve done and what they plan to do,” said Potts. “A lot of the research our students are doing is graduate level research, and a lot of these students get their names published on papers.”
The program supports participants when they present their research at regional and national conferences with the Grote endowment in the Department of Chemistry as well as the Provost Student Research awards.
“For me, to watch a student talk to someone they’ve never met before about their research is a great experience. I don’t interrupt or stand right there with them. They do it on their own,” said Potts. “We think it’s really significant and important for these students to not only be able to participate in the research, but also to communicate it, to present that. If you can present research, then you truly understand it. There’s a difference between being in the lab and doing research based on the instructions you’re given, and doing the research and really being able to explain it to someone else, particularly a layperson who isn’t a chemist.”
“During the summer, I knew what we were doing, but I don’t think I saw the bigger picture. Then, after it was over, I was really able to zoom out and make connections. At the conference, I was explaining it to people and realizing that this was really some neat stuff, which I don’t think you always realize until after the fact,” said Jordan.
Jordan’s research allowed him to relate to Kroto’s research, which won him the Nobel Prize.
“He researched buckminsterfullerene, or carbon buckyballs, which is a carbon molecule made up of sixty carbon atoms arranged in the shape of a soccer ball. When he did that, it branched open different allotropes of carbonite, which relates to carbon nanotubes and the research I did. It’s kind of hand in hand. He was explaining his work and I was right there with him. Maybe if I can master my work, someday I’ll be up there just like him,” said Jordan. “I encourage other people to do research, it was a good experience and a chance to work with some great people. I’m interested in pharmacy, but the research has kind of changed my view of what I may want to do with my life, so maybe I’d want to research pharmaceutical drugs or something like that instead of working in a pharmacy.”
Undergraduate Presentations:
Veronica B. Hubble
E-cigarette filling solutions: HPLC optimization and analysis of tobacco alkaloids
Macon B. Acuff
How the journey becomes the destination for automated spectrophotometric titrations
Caitlin Quinn
Mass loss and morphological changes as a function of time of a nanofiber mesh applicable to limb salvage
Patrick O’Brien
Solid phase extraction method for determining antibiotic release rate from a nanofiber-based biodegradable mesh
Hendrik J Greve
Studies of lysozyme modifications by substituted benzoquinones
Michelle Smith
Ribonuclease A modifications induced by 2-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone and 1,2-naphthoquinone
Anna G Ioannidis
A correlation of divalent metals and tryptophan within prokaryotic and eukaryotic metabolism
Kristina R. Henson
Binding interactions of ibuprofen with human serum albumin
Trevor P Latendresse
Synthesis and characterization of cyclopentadienyl- and pentamethylcyclopentadienyl-Co(III) mixed sandwich compounds containing 1,4,7-trithiacyclononane (9S3) or 1,4,7-triazacyclononane (9N3)
Taylor Hayden
Catalytic transfer hydrogenation of ketoximes with Raney nickel and 2-propanol as a hydrogen donor
Patrick Carey
Synthesis, characterization, and analysis of novel dienes and cyclic compounds
Heir L Jordan
Interactions and binding energies in carbon nanotube bundles
Dylan M Bryant
Theoretical studies of hydrogen abstraction from hydrofluoropropanes by oxygen atom
Ashley D Riner
Synthesis, characterization and reactivity of ruthenium(II) complexes supported by electron-rich arene ligands for C-H bond activation and catalysis
Michael Orick
Crystal structure of (E)-4-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)but-2-en-ol
Jeffrey W McDonald
Computational discovery and synthesis of novel fluorogenic substrate(s) for sphingosine kinase 1: An approach to high-throughput assay development
(Research done at University of Memphis with Dr. Daniel Baker through NSF-REU program)
Faculty Presentations
Dr. Manuel F Santiago
Detection of defensive alkaloid compounds from predatory ladybird beetles
Dr. John P. Lee
Heteroleptic palladium(II) and platinum(II) complexes containing a crown thioether and either 1,3,5-triaza-7-phosphaadamantane or trimethylphosphine
Dr. Han Jung Park
Generation of cavitation luminescence by laser-induced exothermic chemical reaction
Dr. Gretchen E. Potts
Flipping the lab: Preparing instrumental lab students for the workplace
