TLU’s Chemistry Department is having a great year. They were recently notified that they are the recipient of a generous grant from the Robert A. Welch Foundation—the department’s third grant so far this year.
The Welch grant, valued at $75,000, is intended to improve the department’s capabilities in chemical research and to give faculty and students a richer laboratory experience.
Grant manager and Chair of the Chemistry Department Dr. Alison Bray said the funds will be used for a high-pressure liquid chromatography system (HPLC). “The department thought long and hard about what could benefit our students the most, and we chose to build a machine that would work for both organic and inorganic experiments,” said Bray, who went on to explain that the HPLC will allow students to separate and detect a wide variety of chemicals. “It can help us with projects from analyzing river water to detecting and quantifying chemicals produced in a synthetic organic reaction.”
Bray said the department is grateful to the Welch Foundation for their support. “They have been supporting TLU Chemistry since the 1970s, allowing us to engage our undergraduate students in research and supporting us with materials and now equipment that is otherwise very difficult to obtain for a small university.”
The Welch grant comes on the heels of two other grants awarded to the department this year. Dr. Corey Thompson led the process for a grant from the National Science Foundation for the purchase of an X-ray diffractometer. “We also received a three-year grant from the Welch Foundation, which funds our students for a six-week undergraduate research experience,” said Bray. “The students will work with one of the chemistry professors on a novel research project during the summer. Each of us in chemistry will have two students working this summer.”
TLU thanks the Welch Foundation for making it possible for a small university to offer state-of-the-art equipment and first-rate research experiences to its students. Bray says, “The impact on our students is immense as it allows them to develop as scientists and makes the material they are learning in the classroom come to life as part of real-world research projects.”