Chemistry and Biochemistry News

On Friday of the first week of classes, the Chemistry & Biochemistry Peer Mentor Program hosted a Welcome to Stevenson Breakfast for all incoming students. Students attended the breakfast and discussed classes, as well as life at Stevenson with their mentors. Peer mentors loved meeting the new freshmen and transfer students and welcoming them to SU. New students enjoyed having their questions answered and meeting both upperclass students and faculty in the department.

The Chemistry Department is excited to welcome Dr. Will Harrell, a new organic chemistry faculty member. Dr. Harrell completed his Ph.D. at the University of Maryland and his postdoctoral training at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. He is teaching Organic Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, and conducting research with students.

“I am thrilled to be a part of the Stevenson community and love how wonderful and welcoming all the faculty and students have been. I look forward to meeting even more students and inspiring them to learn and become successful in their future careers!”

The Department of Chemistry is very excited to start the 2015-2016 year! The start of a new academic year always brings wonderful energy and excitement to campus. It also gives us a fresh start with new programs, ideas, and plans.

More details will follow on this blog about our students, the internships and research that our students are engaged in, activities organized by our clubs, exciting classes and laboratory experiments, and the new faculty who have joined us this year.

WELCOME to our new students and WELCOME BACK to our returning students. We hope you’re as excited about the upcoming semester as we are!

Heather Drake (right), a chemistry senior, completed her capstone internship this summer at Taylor Technologies. She was excited to intern there because she worked with SU 2010 Chemistry alumni Becki Shook, Janine Ladzinski (left, in picture) and Alyssa Pawlowicz! For her internship, she ran interference tests with colorimeters against the iron reagents of Hach and Taylor Technologies. She really enjoyed her internship because she was able to use and perfect what she learned in coursework and labs at SU. In her own words, “I think that this internship was a great experience to see what goes on in an industrial lab setting, and further confirm my hopes of doing something analytical after I graduate.”

Biochemistry seniors (l to r), Tyler Rutherford, Alicia Greene and Chris Toth, all engaged in research experiences at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine this summer. They all reported incredible growth as scientists, in addition to absolutely loving the experiences! At the end of the summer, they presented their work at a poster session, which was attended by faculty and staff from the Chemistry Department.