Earlham College | News from Public Affairs

RICHMOND, Ind. — With the support of a $30,000 grant from the Dreyfus Foundation, Assistant Professor of Chemistry Lori Watson is jumping on the opportunity to probe deeper into a topic that first intrigued her in graduate school (okay, deep breath): “The synthesis and reactivity of novel high oxidation state inorganic and organometallic complexes.”

Kate Skog (left) and fellow third-year student Kushboo Goel are helping Assistant Professor of Chemistry Lori Watson (right) in her synthesis of inorganic and organometallic complexes.

All kidding aside, Watson’s research is aimed fundamentally at discovering new processes that could have practical application for several industries.

“What we are doing is synthesizing inorganic complexes that are unsaturated, meaning they are very reactive to different chemical processes,” Watson explains. “Hopefully, the resulting molecules will act as catalysts to make plastics and pharmaceuticals, among other things.”

On a related research project, Watson is working with Charlie Peck, assistant professor of computer science, applying computational chemistry to model the structure and reactivity of these transitional metal compounds.

Watson began her research synthesizing catalysts over the past summer with the assistance of third-year students Kate Skog and Kushboo Goel. “The grant will provide funding to keep the project going,” Watson says, “and next spring and summer I’ll add more students to the team.” Along the way, Watson expects to be able to publish her findings in leading professional journals and to send her assistants to research conferences, where they can present their methods and results to the larger chemical community.

The Dreyfus Faculty Start-up Awards support the scholarly activity of new faculty at primarily undergraduate institutions. Each award provides an unrestricted research grant of $30,000 that is generally made before the new faculty members formally begin their first tenure-track appointments. Only 10 such awards were granted nationwide in 2005. Watson will use funds from her project grant for student stipends, student conference travel, and purchasing laboratory equipment and supplies.

“Although the Dreyfus Foundation grant will support the project for five years,” says Watson, “I have a feeling there is enough work to last me two or three times that long.”

Although just starting her second year at Earlham, Watson’s talents in teaching and research already have identified her as a rising star in the College’s Science Division. During her Ph.D. work at Indiana University, Watson was responsible for more than a dozen publications in the most recognized chemistry journals. Over the past year she has co-authored two additional articles and submitted three more for publication.

As a graduate student Watson also was the recipient of a National Science Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship. She received a prestigious Goldwater Fellowship while an undergraduate at the University of Kentucky, where she graduated in 1999 with honors in chemistry.

Contact:
Lori Watson, assistant professor of chemistry
765/983-1856 — E-Mail Lori