Research Projects
Biochemistry, Chemistry, and Physics Research Topics:
One of the best ways for an undergraduate student to learn both the process and the content of physical science is take part in an independent research project. Our faculty members have ongoing research projects that students can work on in their junior or senior year, or sometimes during the summer. Due to the generosity of alumni, we have an endowed fund which we can use to purchase materials and provide stipends to students and faculty during summer research programs. Student research participation is widely recognized as a measure of the quality of an undergraduate chemistry program, and we strive to provide these opportunities for our students. Chemical Engineering students take part in a yearlong senior design project which is similar to research, and often these are done with our faculty.
Recent and Current Research/Design topics studied by Geneva Chemistry and Physics faculty and students
Biochemical and biomedical topics:
Phytochrome Proteins in Pedobacter heparinus: Isolation and Characterization (Austin)
Lantobiotic Activity in Pedobacter heparinus (Austin)
Thermal Denaturation Studies of Enzymes in Non-aqueous Solvents (Austin)
Mechanism of the Peroxidase-catalyzed Reaction of 2,6-dichloroindophenol with Hydrogen Peroxide. (Stahl)
Characterization of Polystyrene-Methacrylic acid copolymer beads by conductometric and potentiometric titrations for use in Biomedical Imaging. (Stephens)
Physical, Analytical or Inorganic Chemistry topics:
Silicate Aerogel Synthesis – Unique Porous Materials (McMahon)
Diffusion Behavior of Inert Gases in Activated Carbon Columns (Stahl)
Diffusion Studies in Hydrogel co-Polymers (Stahl)
Development of Functionalized Carbon to Adsorb Carbon Dioxide (McMahon)
A Novel FTIR Method for Vapor Permeation Measurement in Polymer Films. (Stahl)
Colorimetric Methods to Detect Alcohol in Perspiration. (Stahl)
Oxidation and Precipitation Reactions of Methylphosphoric acid, a component of VX Nerve Gas. (Badger)
Corrosion Behavior of Various Steels – Electrochemical Characterization (Doyle/Stahl)
Environmental and Water Chemistry topics:
Reverse Osmosis for Solvent Recovery and Water Purification (Comer)
Management of Acid-Mine Drainage with Reclaimed Alkaline Materials (Stahl)
Development of ICP-AES methods for water and food analysis. (McMahon)
Acid Mine Drainage Water Analysis: The Davidson’s Run Watershed Project. (Austin)
Organic Chemistry or Chemical Engineering topics:
Development of Improved Methods for Biodiesel Production from Waste Vegetable Oil. (Stahl)
Synthesis of an Fluorescent Probe into an Anti-microbial Coating. (Stephens)
Development of Polymer Characterization Methods for the Undergraduate Laboratory (Comer)
Computer Modeling of Physical Phenomena topics:
Modeling of Electrophoretic Migration Processes in Micro-reactors. (Stahl)
Molecular Modeling Studies of Photochromic Metal Binding (Stephens)
Delta Function Fields for a Charged Particle in Hyperbolic Motion (Cross)
Use of Massively Parallel Computation with GPUs for Non-linear Dynamics and Chaos Study (Cross)