Department of Chemistry

Michael C. Leopold, professor and Floyd D. and Elisabeth S. Gottwald Chair of chemistry, along with undergraduate students Charlie Sheppard, '26, Arielle Vinnikov, '27, Joyce Stern, '26, and Holly Wemple, '25, published “An Amperometric Sensor with Anti-Fouling Properties for Indicating Xylazine Adulterant in Beverages” in Micromachines. Their research is focused on developing a tool for detecting of a common “date rape” drug in beverages to protect potential victims and aid forensic investigations.

Michael C. Leopold, professor and Floyd D. and Elisabeth S. Gottwald Chair of chemistry, along with undergraduate students Joyce Stern, '26, Holly Wemple, '25, Charlie Sheppard, '26 and Arielle Vinnikov, '27, published "Fouling-Resistant Voltammetric Xylazine Sensors for Detection of the Street Drug ‘Tranq’” in the journal Toxics. Their research is leading toward the development of a device to help protect first responders during the fentanyl opioid crisis.

Miles Johnson, associate professor of chemistry, received a 2024 Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation.

Chiles Wade Downey, professor of chemistry and Clarence E. Denoon Jr. Chair in Natural Sciences,  along with undergraduate students Helen L. Xia, ’24, Eric Zhou, ’27, and Bianca Bicalho, ’22, published "Friedel-Crafts alkylations of indoles, furans, and thiophenes with arylmethyl acetates promoted by trimethylsilyl trifluoromethanesulfonate" in Synthetic Communications.