Student/Faculty Research in Chemistry and Biochemistry at Gustavus

The Gustavus Chemistry Department encourages student participation in research.

The opportunity for Gustavus students to undertake a research project working with a faculty member is a key part of the chemistry and biochemistry majors. The Chemistry faculty design their research programs specifically with student participation in mind. (Information about specific faculty research may be found on their research links below.)

Please visit the Gustavus Science Student Research website for details on why and how Gustavus students may become actively involved in research here at Gustavus as well as off-campus. 

Students are welcome to ask faculty about getting involved in research and may e-mail faculty to schedule a time for a conversation. Some opportunities for summer research and during the academic year are listed below. 

• Summer Research Opportunities (partial)
  • Check the Gustavus Science Student Research website
  • First Year Research Experience (FYRE) webpage
    • summer research opportunies for Gusties between their first and second years.
  • Second-Year Experience at Research (SEAR) webpage
  • Listing of Summer Research Opportunties for 2024 (off-campus)
    
    • Please note application deadlines! 

• Academic-Year Research Opportunities (partial)
  
  • Swanson – Holcomb Undergraduate Research (SHUR) 2023-2024 (formerly Sigma Xi Undergraduate Research Grant Opportunities) funding for student research with Gustavus faculty is available each academic year. Calls for student applications are announced early in the fall semester and again early in the spring semester. Student researchers whose proposals are accepted will present their research at Gustavus at the Celebration of Creative Inquiry/Spring Research Symposium held every spring in early May, on the Friday prior to Honors Day.
    • Note: The SHUR Application - Spring 2024 will be available February 5, 2024. Application deadlines will be late February.
      
  • Independent Study - CHE-291 and CHE-391
    
• Instrumentation Webpage

• Visualization & Imagining Center
  • The Center is a three room facility that offers a range of capabilities. One room contains a Zeiss LSM 700 laser scanning confocal microscope, built using an inverted Zeiss Axio Observer stand augmented with a fully motorized stage and a second detector, a high-resolution CCD camera. The Center also has a fluorescence imaging room with a HORIBA Fluoromax-4 fluorescence spectrometer equipped with integrated cuvette stirring, brackets for supplemental filters, programmable temperature control, and rotatable filters for polarized light (i.e. to detect anisotropy). An accompanying computer suite contains six dual-monitor workstations with imaging and molecular modeling software, including two with stereographic viewing capability, plus both stereographic and high-definition image projection systems. These spaces are used for faculty-student collaborative research and for instructional purposes. The Center was equipped in part due to generous support from a Howard Hughes Medical Institute science education grant. Questions about the facility and reservation requests can be directed to Jeff Dahlseid. . 
  • Reservation Calendar (The reservation calendar for the Center may be accessed by those with a Gustavus network username.)

• Research Symposia - Opportunities for Gusties to present their science research in a symposium on the Gustavus Campus

• CHE-399 Chemistry Seminar Series 

• Archives:
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute Grant (link to webpage)
  • Past Student Research