With over seventy total researchers during the summer, the Furman University Chemistry Department boasts one of the largest undergraduate research programs in the nation. The summer of 2014 marked the 50th consecutive program in which undergraduates, masters students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty mentors, and visiting faculty from area schools work together over a ten-week period in a wide variety of scientific research projects. The undergraduate students, who receive stipends for the summer, carry out independent investigations in the areas of analytical, inorganic, physical, organic and bio-organic chemistry. This program would not be possible without the support of wide variety of public and private sources.
These student/faculty collaborations produced the following research papers that were published in peer-reviewed journals.
Submissions from 2022
Polydopamine: a bioinspired adhesive and surface modification platform, Hannah Feinberg and Timothy Hanks
Hydrogen-Bond Topology is More Important than Acid/Base Strength in Atmospheric Prenucleation Clusters, Shannon E. Harold, Conor J. Bready, Leah A. Juechter, Luke A. Kurfman, Sara Vanovac, Vance R. Fowler, Grace E. Mazaleski, Tuguldur T. Odbadrakh, and George C. Shields
Photochemistry and Photophysics of Charge-Transfer Excited States in Emissive d10/d0 Heterobimetallic Titanocene Tweezer Complexes, Henry C. London, David Y. Pritchett, Jared A. Pienkos, Colin D. McMillen, Thomas J. Whittemore, Conor J. Bready, Alexis R. Myers, Noah C. Vieira, Shannon Harold, George C. Shields, and Paul S. Wagenknecht
Role of the Trifluoropropynyl Ligand in Blue-Shifting Charge-Transfer States in Emissive Pt Diimine Complexes and an Investigation into the PMMA-Imposed Rigidoluminescence and Rigidochromism, Jackson S. McCarthy, Mary Jo McCormick, John H. Zimmerman, H. Rhodes Hambrick, Wilson M. Thomas, Colin D. McMillen, and Paul S. Wagenknecht
Submissions from 2021
Monomers of Glycine and Serine Have a Limited Ability to Hydrate in the Atmosphere, Benjamin T. Ball, Sara Vanovac, Tuguldur T. Odbadrah, and George C. Shields
Adenine Radical Cation Formation by a Ligand-Centered Excited State of an Intercalated Chromium Polypyridyl Complex Leads to Enhanced DNA Photo-oxidation, Frederico A. Baptista, Dorottya Krizsan, Mark Stitch, Igor V. Sazanovich, Ian P. Clark, Michael Towrie, Conor Long, Lara Martinez-Fernandez, Roberto Improta, Noel Kane-Maguire, John M. Kelly, and Susan J. Quinn
Insights into the Charge-Transfer Character of Electronic Transitions in RCp2Ti(C2Fc)2 Complexes using Solvatochromism, Resonance Raman Spectroscopy, and TDDFT, Elizabeth S. Carlton, Joshua J. Sutton, Ariel G. Gale, George C. Shields, Keith C. Gordon, and Paul S. Wagenknecht
Calculating Reliable Gibbs Free Energies for Formation of Gas-Phase Clusters that Are Critical for Atmospheric Chemistry: (H2SO4)3, Luke A. Kurfman, Tuguldur T. Odbadrakh, and George C. Shields
Ligand-to-Metal Charge-Transfer Photophysics and Photochemistry of Emissive d0 Titanocenes: A Spectroscopic and Computational Investigation, Henry C. London, Thomas J. Whittemore, Ariel G. Gale, Colin D. McMillen, David Y. Pritchett, Alexis R. Myers, Hannah D. Thomas, George C. Shields, and Paul S. Wagenknecht
Polymorphism, Halogen Bonding, and Chalcogen Bonding in the Diiodine Adducts of 1,3- and 1,4-Dithiane, Andrew J. Peloquin, Srikar Alapati, Colin McMillen, Timothy W. Hanks, and Bill Pennington
The Role of Non‑Covalent Interactions on Cluster Formation: Pentamer, Hexamers and Heptamer of Difluoromethane, George C. Shields and Berhane Temelso
Magnetic sensitivity of cryptochrome 4 from a migratory songbird, Jingjing Xu, Lauren E. Jarocha, Tilo Zollitsch, Marcin Konowalczyk, Kevin B. Henbest, Sabine Richert, Matthew J. Golesworthy, Jessica Schmidt, Victoire Dejean, Daniel J.C. Sowood, Marco Basseto, Jiate Luo, Jessica R. Walton, Jessica Fleming, Yujing Wei, Tommy L. Pitcher, Gabriel Moise, Maike Herrmann, Hang Yin, Haijia Wu, Rabea Bartolke, Stefanie J. Kasehagen, Simon Horst, Glen Dautaj, Patrick D.F. Murton, Angela S. Gehrckens, Yoga Chellia, Joseph S. Takahashi, Karl-Wilhelm Koch, Stefan Weber, Illia A. Solov'yov, Can Xie, Stuart R. Mackenzie, Christiane R. Timmel, Henrik Mourtisen, and Peter J. Hore
Detecting and correlating bacterial populations to visual color change of polydiacetylene-coated filters, Yueyuan Zhang, Paul L. Dawson, Timothy W. Hanks, Julie K. Northcutt, Tzen-Rong Tzeng, and William T. Pennington
Submissions from 2020
Water-Mediated Peptide Bond Formation in the Gas Phase: A Model Prebiotic Reaction, Ariel G. Gale, Tuguldur T. Odbadrakh, Benjamin T. Ball, and George C. Shields
Synthesis and 3D Printing of Conducting Alginate-Polypyrrole Ionomers, Timothy W. Hanks
Particle formation and surface processes on atmospheric aerosols: A review of applied quantum chemical calculations, Angelina Leonardi, Heather M. Ricker, Ariel G. Gale, Benjamin T. Ball, Tuguldur T. Odbadrakh, George C. Shields, and Juan G. Navea
Synthesis and characterization of a tert-butyl ester substituted titanocene dichloride: t-BuOOCCp2TiCl2, Jackson S. McCarthy, Colin D. McMillen, Jared A. Pienkos, and Paul S. Wagenknecht
Is indenyl a stronger or weaker electron donor ligand than cyclopentadienyl? Opposing effects of indenyl electron density and ring slipping on electrochemical potentials, Khiem Nguyen, Emily Lane, C D. McMillen, Jared A. Pienkos, and Paul S. Wagenknecht
Computation of Atmospheric Concentrations of Molecular Clusters from ab initio Thermochemistry, Tuguldur T. Odbadrakh, Ariel G. Gale, Benjamin T. Ball, Berhane Temelso, and George C. Shields
Twenty years of exceptional success: The molecular education and research consortium in undergraduate computational chemistry (MERCURY ), George C. Shields
Maintaining a high degree of research productivity at a predominately undergraduate institution as your career advances, George C. Shields and Scott E. Feller
Catalytic activity of water molecules in gas-phase glycine dimerization, George C. Shields, Ariel G. Gale, and Tuguldur T. Odbadrah
Phosphorus···Iodine Halogen Bonding in Cocrystals of Bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane (dppe) and p-Diiodotetrafluorobenzene (p-F4DIB), Adam M. Siegfried, Hadi D. Arman, Khadijatul Kobra, Kunhuan Liu, Andrew J. Peloquin, Colin McMillen, Timothy W. Hanks, and William T. Pennington
A plausible metal-free ancestral analogue of the Krebs cycle composed entirely of α-ketoacids, R. Trent Stubbs, Mahipal Yadav, Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy, and Greg Springsteen
A proposed mechanism to induce multi-layer polydiacetylene-coated filter color response to bacteria, Yueyuan Zhang, Paul L. Dawson, Tzuen-Rong Tzeng, Timothy W. Hanks, Julie K. Northcutt, and William T. Pennington