Donald awarded at Colloquy
Kelling Donald, Clarence E. Denoon Jr. Chair in the Natural Sciences and professor of chemistry, received the 2026 Distinguished Scholarship Award from the University of Richmond at Colloquy.
Faculty Highlights
Shugrue receives research grant for work with students
Christopher Shugrue, assistant professor of chemistry, received a summer research grant from Organic Syntheses for the project "Development of Oxidative-Ring Openings of Benzoxazoles for the Construction of Amido-Substituted Quinone Derivatives." Grants are awarded to faculty at principally undergraduate institutions who work with a student in their department.
Downey and students publish on advancing chemistry for drug development
Wade Downey, professor of chemistry, along with Eric Zhou, ’27, and Helen Xia, ’24, published “Friedel–Crafts Addition of 3-Alkylated Indoles to Aldehydes: 2-Hydroxyalkylation Promoted by Trimethylsilyl Trifluoromethanesulfonate” in The Journal of Organic Chemistry.
Parish and students publish on unusual reactivity in inorganic-containing potential anti-cancer warhead drugs
Carol Parish, Floyd D. and Elisabeth S. Gottwald Chair in Chemistry, along with students Marcos Hendler, ’25, and Travis Greene, ’23, and former postdoctoral research associate, Dominic A. Sirianni, published “The Effect of Chalcogen-Phosphorous Substituents on Enediynes Undergoing the Bergman Cyclization” in Inorganic Chemistry.
Parish publishes on unusual bonding in cage-like silicon containing molecules
Carol Parish, Floyd D. and Elisabeth S. Gottwald Chair in Chemistry, published “Instability of Octahedral Symmetry in Si8O12H8 and Ge8O12H8: Consequence of the Pseudo-Jahn-Teller Effect” in the Journal of Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers and Materials.
Leopold and Parish publish with students on halogen bonding
Michael C. Leopold and Carol Parish, professors and Floyd D. and Elisabeth S. Gottwald Chairs of Chemistry, along with Ben Edelman, ‘27, Charlie Sheppard, ‘26, Arielle Vinnikov, ‘27, and Lucas Chuidian, ‘27 published “Design of Nanomaterial-based Sensors for Enhanced Halogen Bonding” in ACS Omega.
Parish, Wu, and students publish on how DNA polymerase prevents copying mistakes
Carol Parish, Floyd D. and Elisabeth S. Gottwald Chair in Chemistry, and Eugene Wu, associate professor of biology and biochemistry, published "Understanding the Fidelity and Specificity of DNA Polymerase I" in ACS Omega, along with Alexis Blake, ‘19, and Elise Tate, ‘19.
Shugrue and students publish on new tool for peptides
Christopher Shugrue, assistant professor of chemistry, along with Phoebe R. Rubio, ’26, Gavin A. Clausen, ’26, Zachary D. Ruighaver, ’26, Abigail F. Dalton, ’24, John Blobe, ’24, and Amanda L. Moore, ’26, published "Benzothiazole sulfones as a tool for peptide modification and cleavage" in Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry.
Donald publishes on why elements like radium are dangerous
Kelling Donald, Clarence E. Denoon Jr. Chair in the Natural Sciences, published “Why are elements like radium dangerous? A chemist explains radioactivity and its health effects” in The Conversation.
Donald and student publish on simple inorganic molecules
Kelling Donald, Clarence E. Denoon Jr. Chair in the Natural Sciences, along with student Brice Di Carlo, ’27, published “Chapter 10 - On the origins of local positive potentials on group 13 central atoms and the ouroboric cyclization of heteroorganic chains” in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry.
Donald and students publish on investigation of chemical bonding
Kelling Donald, Clarence E. Denoon Jr. Chair in the Natural Sciences, along with students Donovan Hoilette, Jr., ‘25, and Gabriel F. Stewart, ’19, published “Sigma-hole-supported interactions in complexes of group 5 oxyhalides (MOX3) with insights for their extended solids” in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.
Pollock receives national award for excellence in teaching and research
Julie Pollock, associate professor of chemistry, has received the 2025 Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation. The Dreyfus Foundation is dedicated to advancing the chemical sciences and established the Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award to support the research of outstanding early career faculty at primarily undergraduate institutions.
