Chemistry and Biochemistry Undergraduate Research

As soon as the summer after freshman year, chemistry and biochemistry majors are encouraged to become involved in research projects, closely supervised by faculty in the Department. Stipends are available to fund students’ work on a broad range of research projects during the summer. If you would like to conduct summer research with one of the Department faculty members, click here for an application form.

The results of research projects are often presented by students at the American Chemical Society National Meeting, the Western New York American Chemical Society Undergraduate Research Symposium, and other meetings. In addition, students are often co-authors on research publications in prestigious science journals.

Research in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry is described in this document and include:

Analytical & Inorganic Chemistry: Dr. Szczepankiewicz’s group is interested in developing rugged photo activated catalysts capable of reducing small stable molecules such as CO2.


Analytical & Environmental Chemistry: Dr. Schaber’s group is interested in developing analytical tools to identify pollutants in water and soil.


Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry Dr. Damon’s research group is interested in the biochemistry of aquatic species with an emphasis on biofilm formation and the attachment of macrofoulers in the marine environment. He also investigates the effect of strenuous exercise on hematologic and biochemical parameters.


Organic Chemistry: Dr. Gregg’s group is interested in the reactions of carbenes useful for preparing novel types of chemical products. This includes screening the reactivity of starting materials, investigating chiral metal catalysts used to prepare optically active products, and modelling reaction mechanisms using computer-based quantum mechanical tools.


Physical Chemistry: Dr. Sheridan’s group uses visible laser and millimeter/microwave spectroscopic techniques, as well as computational chemistry, to study fundamental structure and bonding properties of small molecules in the gas phase.