Chemistry
Student Research
HOME
STUDENT RESEARCH PHILOSOPHY
Hamilton College values and supports undergraduate research projects which are collaborations between student and faculty. We work with students on research projects as soon as they are ready, often during the summer prior to their matriculation to Hamilton College. In the summers of 2002, 2003, and 2004 we had 38, 27, and 36 students working in the Brewer, Elgren, Kinnel, Rosenstein, and Shields research groups. This past summer's research group included 8 incoming freshman supported by innovative funding obtained through the NSF-STEP and the Dreyfus Foundation. The extensive research activity in the department is funded by the College and by external grants, including grants from the American Chemical Society/Petroleum Research Foundation, the Dreyfus Foundation, the National Institute of Health, and the National Science Foundation. The faculty have obtained approximately $440,000 a year over the last four years from external funding agencies, and every faculty member participates in writing grants to support our undergraduate research program. The faculty have published 21 papers in the last three years, 13 of them with student co-authors. This extensive research activity of our undergraduates is one of the reasons that our students receive national awards such as Goldwater Scholarships and Fulbright Fellowships. All seniors are required to undertake a one-semester research project under the direction of a faculty member. Most of our majors take two semesters of research, and most of them have had research experience prior to their senior year project. A summary of summer research abstracts from the summer research projects, and outlines of senior thesis projects are available in this section.