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Harvey Mudd chemistry faculty believe that research of project work on a significant chemical problem is a particularly valuable educational experience. Senior research (Chem 151-152) is the capstone experience of the chemistry degree. Students participate in research with faculty, some starting in their first year; all chemistry majors pursue research and write a senior thesis. About 15 to 25 students work on research projects in the department during the summer, and many papers co-authored by our students and faculty have been published.

Financial support for chemistry research comes from the John Stauffer Charitable Trust, Rose Hills Foundation, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Merck/AAAS, American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund, Organic Syntheses, and Kubota/Myhre Fellowships.

Summer Research 2026

All 无忧视频 undergraduates are invited to participate in the Summer Research program of 2026. Applications are especially encouraged from chemistry, joint chemistry/biology, joint chemistry/climate, and chemistry-related IPS majors, as well as students strongly considering a major in any of these fields. Our summer program runs for 10 weeks (May 26 鈥� July 31, 2026) under the direction of Professor Bilin Zhuang. Students will be conducting research, learning about the chemistry profession, and honing their presentation skills. Please direct any questions to: chemistry@hmc.edu.

Research descriptions are updated as received.

Professor Brucks鈥擯olymer Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Shape-dependent degradability of polymers

Many plastics are used for only a few minutes before being discarded to sit in landfills for decades. Creative solutions to recycle spent materials are urgently needed. We are developing new strategies to degrade plastics by leveraging novel elements of material design. Student researchers on this project will gain experience in polymer synthesis and characterization, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), and ultrasonication.

Understanding probiotic bacterial growth

The human body is composed of trillions of microbes that are key regulators of our health. This dynamic and diverse population comprises both beneficial commensal organisms and harmful opportunistic pathogens. We are developing a new approach to carefully manage this balance through the identification and design of prebiotics that selectively favors the growth of beneficial bacteria over pathogens. Student researchers on this project will gain experience with BSL-1 bacterial culture, and techniques from both chemical biology and microbiology.

Professors Hawkins and Medero鈥�Real-time air quality monitoring: from collection to dissemination

Air pollution research can be described as requiring 鈥渢hree legs of a stool鈥� 鈥� measurement, modeling, and laboratory studies 鈥� which work together to advance our understanding of the sources and processes which shape our air quality from local to global scales. This specific project serves to advance the quality and utility of air pollution measurements here in Claremont through better integration with open source computational tools than has traditionally been used by air pollution scholars.聽In addition to getting this equipment recalibrated for new observations, the primary goal of this summer is to facilitate and streamline the process of source apportionment, or attribution, for particulate air pollution by automating the data streams from instruments with unique temporal resolution and data formats into a single coherent package.聽

A second goal is to leverage the real-time nature of these instruments and the above-mentioned streamlined analysis to provide real-time 鈥渓evel 1鈥� (basic QA/QC鈥檇) data on a public-facing web page, in a digestible format. This page would include the meteorological data, basic gas phase pollutants (ozone and nitrogen oxides) as well as particulate matter amount and chemical composition.聽

The timing of this proposed work aligns with a new air toxics measurement campaign taking place in the Southern California Air Basin through SCAQMD, MATES VI. The chemical specificity of the measurements in Claremont exceeds that typically available to air quality management staff, and therefore serves as a valuable addition to their observations.

For additional information, email Prof. Hawkins at lhawkins@g.hmc.edu or Prof. Medero at jmedero@g.hmc.edu

Professor Healy鈥擧ybrid Materials Chemistry

Hybrid Materials for Next-generation Energy Storage

To tackle climate change, we need cleaner, more efficient ways to store and use energy. Many of the proposed 鈥渘ext generation鈥� energy devices (things like fuel cells or advanced battery technologies) require conductive solid components known as Solid State Electrolytes or SSEs. Unfortunately, the current options for SSE materials all have drawbacks. Inorganic materials tend to be highly conductive, but difficult to work with. Organic materials (usually polymers) tend to be easy to process, but are relatively poor conductors.

At the Hybrid Materials Chemistry (HMC) lab, we鈥檙e interested in generating 鈥渉ybrid鈥� materials with both organic and inorganic components, which will hopefully combine the best of both organic and inorganic materials. We鈥檙e particularly interested in phase changes between crystalline, liquid and amorphous states of these hybrid materials, and how these phase changes influence the material properties. Hopefully, we鈥檒l collaborate with some international colleagues who鈥檒l do some additional characterization on your materials.

If you鈥檙e interested, please feel free to contact Prof. Healy for more information at chealy@g.hmc.edu.

Professor Hernandez-Castillo鈥擶orking Towards the Understanding of Structural Changes of Anticonvulsants

This summer the Mol-Spec lab will focus its attention on testing our REMPI-TOF spectrometer. With it, we hope to gain insight to the structural changes that occur in a series of phenyl-containing succinimides.

Succinimide based anticonvulsants are used to mitigate the effects of absence seizures. The key to understanding a molecule鈥檚 behavior is to first understand its structure and then how it interacts with its immediate surroundings. The role that is played by the phenyl ring in the mechanism of action of certain anticonvulsants is still under active investigation. To probe this phenyl ring more directly we will use our newly acquired, tunable pulsed laser system to record vibronically resolved electronic spectra of the phenylsuccinimides using our Resonance-enhanced Multiphoton Ionization 鈥� Time of-flight (REMPI-TOF) mass spectrometer. The three molecules we will target this summer are phensuximide, N-phenyl succinimide, and 4-amino phthalimide.

Student researchers on this project will gain expertise with vacuum chambers, time-of-flight mass spectrometers, electronic spectroscopy, electronic structure calculations, state-of-the-art lasers, and quantum mechanics. They will also use experimental tools that grew out of other fields to solve current chemical problems.

For additional information, email Prof. Hernandez-Castillo at ahernandezcastillo@g.hmc.edu.

Professor Ogba鈥�Modeling Reaction Mechanisms and Catalysis

Our group uses computational chemistry techniques to investigate the mechanisms behind chemical reactions. We specialize in analyzing reactions that may appear 鈥渕essy鈥� and uncovering the simple chemical rules that govern them. Through this process, we develop reactivity models that help chemists enhance the efficiency of reactions.

Our current projects include:
鈥� Understanding how zerovalent carbon compounds can act as catalysts for converting petroleum byproducts into high-value chemicals.
鈥� Investigating how main-group metals can catalyze defluorination and fluorine-substitution reactions.
鈥� Exploring the use of transition metal catalysts in converting biomass into high-value synthetic fuels.
鈥� Developing a predictive model for the cyclization of peptides.

Students interested in this work are encouraged to contact Prof. Ogba at聽mogba@g.hmc.edu

Professor Van Ryswyk鈥擰uantum Dot-Based Photovoltaics

Third-generation photovoltaics promise performance equal to that of silicon solar cells at a fraction of the cost. 聽We tailor the surface chemistry of PbS quantum dots and other semiconductors used in these low-cost, ultra-thin, solid-state solar cells to make highly efficient, solution processable devices. Researchers in our lab become adept at working in the solid state, creating and characterizing nanoscale materials, building solar cells, and analyzing their efficiency. Common techniques include Schlenk-line synthesis, blade coating, profiling stylus measurements, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and atomic force and scanning electron microscopies. Photovoltaic performance is characterized with a range of instrumentation and techniques in the newly established Claremont Photovoltaics Toolset, including incident photon conversion efficiency, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, photovoltage decay, and intensity-modulated photocurrent and photovoltage spectroscopies.

For additional information, email Prof. Van Ryswyk at聽vanryswyk@hmc.edu

Professor Vosburg鈥擡co-friendly Molecule Making

Do you want to do chemistry that is聽good and beautiful, green and clever? Do you want to be a legit molecule maker? Join us! We are developing eco-friendly reactions to rapidly create organic molecules in surprising ways: new bonds, new rings, and more! Some of our targets have antibiotic properties or applications for metabolic disorders. We collaborate with process chemists at a pharmaceutical company and with biologists at a local university to ensure our chemistry is impactful.

For additional information, email Prof. Vosburg at vosburg@g.hmc.edu.

Professor Zhuang 鈥� Physical Chemistry of Solvents

Have you ever imagined that the water that we drink every day is, in fact, the weirdest liquid on Earth? Do you want to know how water is weird and what gives water weird behaviors? How do water molecules hold their hands (by hydrogen bonds, but what are they exactly, and in what geometry)? What are water molecules鈥� dance moves to make much biochemistry happen effortlessly? If you are curious and enjoy computational exploration, join us! We are the FLUID Lab (Fluids for learning and understanding intermolecular dynamics). We use computational and theoretical techniques to understand liquids and the molecules within.

For additional information, email Prof. Zhuang at聽bzhuang@g.hmc.edu.