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Welcome to the Chemistry Program
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Undergraduate Research
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Department Overview

The chemistry program of Midwestern State University emphasizes personalized instruction and student research.  Students receive direct individual attention by the faculty of Ph.D. chemists in small classes and seminar groups and are encouraged to start work on a research project as early as the second year of study.  This commitment has been supported by over $1.3 million in faculty and departmental research grants.  A large portion of these funds is devoted to student research scholarships.  Results from undergraduate research projects have been presented at regional and national conferences and published in scholarly journals with international distribution. 

The chemistry program is located on the third floor of Bolin Hall.  Facilities include fully equipped teaching laboratories and private research laboratories for each faculty member.  Undergraduate research and student understanding of lecture material through laboratory training are facilitated by a large array of modern instrumentation which includes:  high performance liquid chromatography systems with UV/Vis and electrochemical detectors, gas chromatography instruments with flame ionization and electron capture detectors, a gas chromatography/mass spectrometer, a 200 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, single-beam, double-beam and diode array UV/Vis spectrometers, a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer, an electrochemistry work station for cyclic voltammetry and coulometry, an atomic absorbance/atomic emission spectrometer with flame, graphite furnace, and hydride generation atomizers, a computer controlled thermogravimetric analyzer and calorimetric analyzer, a low temperature photon counting fluorimeter for solid and gas samples, and a high precision scanning fluorimeter.  Additionally, students have access to computer software for quantum mechanical and thermodynamic computations, molecular mechanics and results rendering, statistical analysis and graphical presentation of data as well as complete PowerPoint projection systems for presentations of their work.

 Available scholarships include Robert A. Welch Chemistry Research Scholarships and George N. Prescott Scholarships.  In addition, many students receive Chemistry Laboratory Assistantships.

Faculty Supported Undergraduate Research:

Dr. Rodney Cate's students work to separate and characterize various enzymes from snake venoms.  Techniques employed include electrophoretic methods,  size exclusion, ion exchange, and affinity chromatography, and UV-visible spectroscopy. 

Dr. Chris Hansen's students work in several areas of organic synthesis primarily targeting small molecules.  Examples include non-ionic surfactants for use in high performance micellar electrokinetic chromatography, modified phthalocyanines for use in preparing chemically modified electrodes, possible pheromones, etc. 

Dr. Jianguo Shao's students work in the electrochemistry and spectroelectrochemistry of macrocyclic phthalocyanins, porphyrins, porphoryrazines and corroles. Other areas of active research are in analytical chemistry and heterogeneous catalysis, zeolite chemistry and environmental chemistry.

Dr. Randal Hallford's students work in the synthesis of nobel metal complexes with fluorescent properties and important theoretical and industrial applications. Analysis is accomplished utiilzing X-ray diffraction, quantum mechanical computational modelling and low temperature fluorscence spectroscopy. Other areas of interest are stereospecific catalytic surface development, and the thermodynamics and kinetics of inroganic complexes of the nobel metals.

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