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Undergraduate Research

Student in lab holding test tube

Undergraduate research allows students to creatively use and expand their chemistry knowledge as they work with faculty research mentors and graduate students on fundamental research. Chemistry faculty work in many different areas such as greener synthesis of pharmaceutical precursors, student learning of chemistry, biochemical markers of disease, drug targets for unmet diseases, and improved knowledge of combustion. To learn from peers about the benefits of undergraduate research at WVU, watch the two videos below!

Undergraduate chemistry majors are encouraged to engage in research during their time at WVU. You will receive academic credit by completing CHEM 497: Undergraduate Research.

One semester prior to the first semester of research, you should contact chemistry faculty to determine if there is an opportunity to do research in their lab. Once the student and the faculty research mentor have agreed on the nature of the research, the time required each week (rule of thumb – 3 hours per week for every credit hour) and the number of credit hours, the student completes the online form, and the CHEM 497 instructor seeks approval from the faculty research mentor prior to overriding the student for the CHEM 497 course. The student may then register for CHEM 497. The CHEM 497 instructor will email the student after granting the CHEM 497 override.

List of Undergraduate Research Projects

All chemistry research faculty (Assistant, Associate, and Full Professors) support undergraduates in research (number dependent on the size of their research group). Check the Faculty tab for additional faculty as potential mentors for undergraduate research. In addition, the CHEM 497 course instructor can assist with finding a faculty research mentor.

Dr. Brian Dolinar

  • Inorganic chemistry

Dr. Fabien Goulay

  • Lasers applied to gas-phase chemistry
  • Heterogeneous oxidation of nanoparticles

Dr. Lisa Holland

  • Modular Capillary Electrophoresis and Capillary Liquid Chromatography
  • Bioanalytical Separations
  • Biochemical Markers of Cardiovascular Disease

Dr. Hacer Karatas Bristow

  • Medicinal Chemistry
  • Drug Targets for Unmet Disease Treatments
  • Solid phase synthesis of peptides for screening study of beta-catenin

Dr. Brian Popp

  • Organic and Bioorganic Synthesis
  • Organometallic Catalysis
  • Enantioselective Catalysis and Functional Materials relying on Supramolecular Principles

Enrolling in Chemistry 497

All students in CHEM 497 are expected to submit a written report about their research at the end of the semester. A copy of the report must be submitted to the faculty instructor in charge of CHEM 497. Advanced CHEM 497 students may present (oral or poster) their research at an institutional or disciplinary symposium on place of the written report and with approval from both the faculty research mentor and the CHEM 497 instructor.

Students are encouraged to start undergraduate research well before the senior year, and are advised to identify and contact potential faculty research mentors early. For CHEM 497, research mentors should be regular or adjunct faculty members of the C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry. Faculty members from other departments may be approved on a case-by-case basis and if the proposed research has a chemistry focus. Contact the CHEM 497 instructor to discuss external faculty research mentors.

WVU Office of Undergraduate Research

Information about undergraduate research opportunities at WVU and beyond can be found at http://undergraduateresearch.wvu.edu/

WVU chemistry majors are encouraged to apply to REU Sites at other institutions or to the WVU-based SURE Site. Another resource to search REU Sites by category (e.g. FR, SO, International, Community College, or Undocumented Students) is REU Finder.