Undergraduate students- are you interested in research? The mission statement of the Department of Chemistry emphasizes research experience as an important part of development and learning. Read about the faculty that are interested in recruiting undergraduate students to work in their labs. Refer to the faculty directory to obtain contact information and just drop a brief email to a prospective mentor to initiate communication.

List of OURE Projects in the Chemistry Department (March 2026)

Dr. Amitava Choudhury

1. Electrode materials for lithium- and sodium ion batteries.

2. Complex chalcogenides as magnetic, thermoelectric and super-ionic conductor materials.

3. Metallo-organic frameworks (MOFs) for gas storage and catalysis.

4. Iron-doped zeolites for sustainable alkane dehydrogenation catalysts

Dr. Michael Eze

1. Developing metabolomics-based method for early detection of infectious diseases.

2. Assessment of organismal exposure to persistent organic pollutants.

Dr. Garry S. Grubbs

1. Identifying and understanding the laser ablation molecular products of actinide elements with various small molecule gases using rotational spectroscopy

Dr. En-Chin Liu

1. Developing sustainable methodologies for enantioselective phosphine derivatizations

2. Developing metal-free catalytic systems for the enantioselective synthesis of bioactive heterocycles

3. Advancing cross-coupling methodologies through sustainable electrochemical catalysis

Dr. Shelley Minteer

1. Increasing the sustainability of the chemical industry through electrification

2. Developing electroanalytical tools for rapid assaying of engineered enzymes

3. Employing catalytic cascades for increasing the energy density of fuel cells

Dr. Vadym Mochalin

1. Fundamental chemistry and physics of low-dimensional materials and rational design of their applications.

2. Computational modeling of materials: from atomistic scale to statistical ensembles.

Dr. Paul Ki-souk Nam

1. Development of advanced oxidation methods for drinking water treatment

2. MALDI-MS to investigate plant uptake of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)

3. Portable GC for phytomonitoring and phytoremediation of organic environmental pollutants

Dr. Manashi Nath

1. Developing non-enzymatic nanobiosensors for continuous health monitoring of patients with diabetes and neurodegenerative disorder.

2. Exploring water as a source of clean energy.

3. Developing a CO2 scrubber for cleaning the environment.

Dr. Thomas Schuman

1. 3D printing of high performance, fiber reinforced aerospace thermoset composites

2. Reusable hydrogels for environmental remediation

3. Hydrogels for geothermal fluid flow conformance

4. Extreme high temperature materials for aerospace/atmospheric re-entry

Dr. Lia Sotiriou-Leventis

1. Aerogels as diverse nanomaterials with applications ranging from CO2 capture to water adsorption to biomedicine.

2. Chemical decontamination of organophosphate-based pesticides and nerve agent simulants.

Dr. Pablo Sobrado

1. Reaction mechanism of YpdA, a Bacillothiol reductase

2. Expression and purification of a putrescine N-monooxygenase

Dr. Pericles Stavropoulos

1. Nitrene Transfer Chemistry to Alkenes and Alkanes Mediated by First-Row Transition Metal Catalysts

Dr. Greg Tschumper

1. Calibrating of Density Functional Methods for the Efficient Computational Characterization of Hydrogen Bonding and Halogen Bonding Interactions

2. Extending the capabilities of the N-body:many-body method by developing python Interfaces with the PSI4 and ORCA quantum chemistry software packages

3. Probing ion hydration patterns with computational quantum chemistry

Dr. Risheng Wang

1. Development of DNA-based targeted drug delivery for cataract prevention.

2. Fabrication of biomolecular-assisted biosensing system.

3. Self-assembly of environmentally responsive DNA nanostructures.

Dr. Klaus Woelk

1. Optimizing the EXCEPT-12 NMR pulse sequence for solvent-signal suppression in testing alcoholic beverages.

Missouri S&T OURE Program information.  For more department information, please contact Dr. Risheng Wang, the OURE Coordinator in the Department of Chemistry.