Click Here For External Research Opportunities
Internal Research Opportunities:
Many students choose to include a research experience or internship as part of their undergraduate education. These experiences allow you to explore a research problem in depth under the guidance of a member of the faculty. You can apply what you've learned in classes and labs and ask and answer questions that no one else has yet addressed. Many students feel that research was the most valuable part of their academic life at college. In addition to the possibility of being a co-author in a published scientific journal article, these experiences give you something concrete to talk about in interviews for jobs or graduate school. In fact, one of the most common interview questions is to talk about a project that you worked on as a student. Interviewers can assess your technical knowledge, your communication skills, and your enthusiasm for science very quickly.
Click Here For First-Year Research Award Opportunities
There are several research groups working in the chemistry department at Wittenberg and we have placed students in summer and academic-year internships as well.
Examples of research projects at Wittenberg:
- Antibiotics and bacterial resistance studies with Dr. Marous
- Organic pedagogy research with Dr. Houseknecht
- Designing labs for Inorganic and General Chemistry courses with Dr. Eveland
- Metal quantification in egg shells with Dr. Dudek
- Electrode modification studies with Dr. Cline
Our students present their research findings at conferences including the MERCURY Conference on Computational Chemistry, Pittcon, and local, regional and national ACS meetings.
Recent student research presentations at national conferences:
- Sarah E. Ruhe and Justin B. Houseknecht, Impacts of the 2021 and 2022 Active Learning in Organic Chemistry Workshops, Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, West Lafayette, Indiana, August 2, 2022.
- Caroline E. Barth and Kristin K. Cline, Investigating the Attachment of Nitroaniline to Grafted and Nongrafted Glassy Carbon Electrodes, Pittcon, Chicago, IL, March 4, 2020.
- Laura E. Stauffer and Kristin K. Cline, Preliminary Survey of Microplastics in Surface Water from Springfield, Ohio, Pittcon, Chicago, IL, March 4, 2020.
- Abbi Vina and Ray Dudek, Concentration of Oleuropein in White Fringe Tree Samples, National American Chemical Society Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, March 2020, canceled due to Covid-19.
- Rachel Boyette and Ray Dudek, Strontium Concentration in Avian Eggshells and Egg Contents, Kentucky Academy of Science, Berea College, KY, Nov. 2019
- Lindsey King and Daniel Marous, An Investigation of the Antimicrobial Resistance Patterns of E. coli to Essential Oils. Poster, Kentucky Academy of Science Annual Meeting, Berea College, Berea, KY, November, 2019.
- Amor Niksic and Daniel Marous, Investigation of Antibiotic Resistance Patterns and Mechanisms in Escherichia Coli, Poster, Kentucky Academy of Science Annual Meeting, Berea College, Berea, KY, November, 2019.
- Lindsey King and Daniel Marous, Exploring the Antimicrobial Potential of Essential Oils, American Lutheran College Faculty Conference, Wittenberg University, Springfield, OH, October, 2019
- Amor Niksic and Daniel Marous, Evolutionary Patterns of Bacterial Resistance, American Lutheran College Faculty Conference, Wittenberg University, Springfield, OH, October, 2019
- Christina Thompson and Amil G. Anderson, Free Energy Changes of Glucose Binding to Glucose/Galactose Binding Protein, 17th MERCURY Conference on Computational Chemistry, Furman University, Greenville, SC, July 2019
- Bradley Malott, Marshall Eippert, and Daniel Marous, Development and investigation of antibiotic resistance in E. coli using aminoglycosides and beta-lactams, American Chemical Society Local Meeting, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, April, 2019
- Jack Snider and Ray Dudek, Rate of Glyphosate Decay, American Chemical Society Local Meeting, University of Dayton, Dayton OH, March 2019
- Caitlyn M. Hum, Justin C. Unternaher, Kristin K. Cline, Investigation of Carbodiimide Coupling to Grafted Aryl Carboxylates on Glassy Carbon Electrodes, Pittcon, Philadelphia, March 20, 2019
- Jack Snider and Ray Dudek, Testing the Adiabatic Flame Model, Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, Notre Dame, South Bend, IN, August 2018
- Mackenzie Freeman, Erin Armitage, and Ray Dudek, Lead Contamination of Eggshells and Contents, Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, Notre Dame, South Bend, IN, August 2018
- Garrin Bachinski, Sarah White, Justin Houseknecht, Effect of the Active Learning in Organic Chemistry Workshops on Teaching Practice, 25th Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, South Bend. August 2018
- Charles Samuel and Justin Houseknecht, Accessing the Gas Phase Reactivity of Cyanide in Nucleophilic Acyl Substitution, 17th MERCURY Conference on Computational Chemistry, Greenville, South Carolina, July 2018
- Jack Snider and Ray Dudek, Glyphosate Concentrations in River and Stream Water, American Chemical Society National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 2018
- Mackenzie Freeman and Ray Dudek, Lead Concentrations in Avian Eggshells and Egg Contents, American Chemical Society National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 2018
Recent publications with Wittenberg student co-authors:
- Houseknecht, J.G.; Bates, L.K. Transition to Remote Instruction Using Hybrid Just-in-Time Teaching, Collaborative Learning, and Specifications Grading for Organic Chemistry 2, J. Chem. Educ. 2020, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c00749.
- Houseknecht, J. B.; Bachinski, G. J.; Miller, M. H.; White, S. A.; Andrews, D. M. Effectiveness of the Active Learning in Organic Chemistry Faculty Development Workshops, Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2020, 21, 387-398.
- Via, G. G.; Shugart, C.L.; Melnyk, S. L.; Hupman, S. R.; Cline, K.K.,One-step Solvent-free Synthesis and Grafting of Diazonium Ions at Glassy Carbon Electrodes, Electroanalysis, 2018, 30, 2421-2426.
- Via, G.; Williams, C.; Dudek, J.; Dudek, R., Decay Kinetics of UV-Sensitive Materials: An Introductory Chemistry Experiment, Journal of Chemical Education, 2015, 92, 747-751.