Chemistry Research

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 and Merck/AAAS.

Summer Research 2025

All Harvey Mudd College undergraduates are invited to participate in the Summer Research program of 2025. Applications are especially encouraged from chemistry and joint chemistry/biology majors and underclassmen strongly considering a major in either discipline. Our summer program runs for 10 weeks (tentatively May 27–July 25) under the direction of Professors David Vosburg and 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—Polymer 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.

Professor Healy—Hybrid 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 “next generation” 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’re interested in generating “hybrid” materials with both organic and inorganic components, which will hopefully combine the best of both organic and inorganic materials. We’re 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’ll collaborate with some international colleagues who’ll do some additional characterization on your materials.

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

Professor Hernandez-Castillo—Working 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’s 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 – 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 Van Heuvelen—Development of Bio-Inspired, Environmentally Friendly Catalysts

Developing Bio-Inspired Catalysts

Metalloenzymes found in biological systems catalyze a remarkable range of reactions with impressive efficiency and selectivity, and these reactions occur under benign conditions using earth-abundant materials. The Van Heuvelen lab draws inspiration from nature to develop new, environmentally friendly catalysts for important reactions.

We are currently studying the dechlorination of carcinogenic pollutants perchloroethylene and trichloroethylene. Metalloenzymes containing cobalt or nickel have been shown to remediate these pollutants. We synthesize small molecular mimics of metalloenzyme active sites and evaluate their reactivity. Insights into the fundamental chemistry that governs these reactions will be used to improve our catalyst design. We also study our compounds using computational methods.

Students interested in this work are encouraged to contact Prof. Van Heuvelen at vanheuvelen@g.hmc.edu to talk about opportunities in the lab this summer.

Opportunities for Students

Computational Chemistry: Calculate geometric and electronic structure of nickel and cobalt compounds and investigate possible reaction pathways.

Professor Van Ryswyk—Quantum Dot-Based Photovoltaics

Third-generation photovoltaics promise performance equal to that of silicon solar cells at a fraction of the cost.  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 vanryswyk@hmc.edu

Professor Vosburg—Eco-friendly Molecule Making

Do you want to do chemistry that is 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 – 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’ 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 bzhuang@g.hmc.edu.