Grants
Our faculty work hard to secure external funding with which to support an active research program involving undergraduates.
2019
American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund (UNI), "Modular and Rational Design of Pyrrolyl Phosphine Ligands for Nickel Catalysis" (Johnson)
2018
Jeffress Memorial Trust Awards Program in Interdisciplinary Research, "An Integrated Synthetic-Computational Approach to Developing a Quantitative Model for Proazaphosphatrane-Enabled Cross-Coupling" (Johnson, Donald)
National Science Foundation, Research at Undergraduate Institutions Program, "RUI: Characterizing Pyrolysis and Combustion Pathways for Asphaltene Model Compounds," (Parish)
Organic Syntheses Summer Research Grant "Rapid Construction of Furans from 3-Silylated Propargyl Carboxylates” (Downey).
2017
American Chemical Society-Petroleum Research Fund, “Systems for CO2 Conversion to Value-Added Products with NADH Mimics” (Norris).
Jeffress Memorial Trust “Experimental and Computational Investigations of MEMO1 and its Role in Breast Cancer” (Pollock, Parish)
American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund, ”A Molecular Dynamics Atomistic Inquiry into the Driving Forces for Nano-Aggregation in Asphaltenes” (Parish)
The Jeffress Trust Awards Program in Interdisciplinary Research, “Experimental and Computational Investigations of MEMO1 and its Role in Breast Cancer,” (Pollock, Parish)
2016
American Chemical Society-Petroleum Research Fund, "New Reactivity Mediated by Trimethylsilyl Trifluoromethanesulfonate" (Downey).
Mary Louise Andrews Award for Cancer Research, Virginia Academy of Sciences “Development of a fluorescence-polarization assay to study MEMO1, a protein involved in breast cancer migration” (Pollock).
National Science Foundation, Major Research Instrumentation Program, “Addition of High Performance Computers for the Molecular Education and Research Consortium in Undergraduate Computational ChemistRY (MERCURY)”, (Parish, jointly with faculty in the MERCURY consortium)
2014
National Science Foundation – Research Undergraduate Institutions (RUI), "Xerogel-Based Amperometric Biosensors Incorporating Nanoparticle Networks - Adaptable Templates for Clinically Relevant Measurements", 9/2014 – 9/2017 (Leopold).
2013
Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation: Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, "Silyl Triflates in the Development of New One-Pot Reactions for the Production of Synthetic Building Blocks" (Downey).
Research Corporation Multi-Investigator Cottrell College Science Award; "Structural investigations of DNA replication of analogues of the mutagenic nucleotide, 8-oxo-2'-Deoxyguanosine"; (Hamm, Wu).
National Science Foundation- RUI Award, "Chemical Investigations into the Bioactivity of the DNA Lesion 8-Oxo-2'-deoxyguanosine" (Hamm).
Commonwealth Health Research Board, "Amperometric Biosensors Incorporating Nanoparticle Networks: Monitoring Sepsis Using Lactate Measurement" (Leopold).
The Jeffress Trust Awards Program in Interdisciplinary Research, "Studies of DNA polymerase mechanism and thermostability using molecular dynamics simulations and X-ray crystallography" (Parish, Wu).
2012
National Science Foundation "Supporting the Research of PUI faculty and undergraduates at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology National Meetings" (Gentile).
National Institutes of Health/NCI (AREA Program), "The Synthesis and Bioassay of Novel Pyrroles", 7/11/2012 to 6/30/2015 (Gupton).
Boehringer Ingelheim Chemicals, Inc., "Boehringer Ingelheim Collaboration" (Gupton).
Cottrell College Science Award "Rhenium(V)-Oxo Catalyzed Addition Reactions" (Nolin).
The Jeffress Foundation (Renewal) "The Development of New Desymmetrization Reactions: Addition to Electron Deficient Cyclopropanes" (Nolin).
National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation Program, "Acquisition of High Performance Computers for the Molecular Education and Research Consortium in Undergraduate Computational ChemistRY (MERCURY)" (Parish).
The Jeffress Trust Awards Program in Interdisciplinary Research, "Studies of DNA polymerase mechanism and thermostability using molecular dynamics simulations and X-ray crystallography" (Parish, Wu).
Fulbright Scholar Program (Parish).
National Science Foundation, Research at Undergraduate Institutions, "Multireference Studies of Organic Polyradicals, Radical Reactions and Graphene Nanoribbons" (Parish with co-PI Hans Lischka, Texas Tech University).
2011
National Science Foundation- RUI Award, "Understanding Steroid Regulation of Ionotropic Glutamate Receptors" (Bell).
National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award, "Theoretical Studies of the Relationships between Bonding Preferences in Inorganic Molecules, their Oligomers and Extended Solids, Focusing on Metal Halides" (Donald).
National Science Foundation - Research at Undergraduate Institution (RUI), "Reaction Acceleration, Mediation, and Catalysis by In Situ Silylation" (Downey).
National Science Foundation- RUI Award, "An experimental and computational approach to understanding steroid regulation of ionotropic glutamate receptors" (Gentile).
Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation - Henry Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award, "Nanoparticle Film Assemblies as Interfaces for Protein Adsorption and Electrochemistry - Amperometric Sensing Materials for Biomedical Applications" (Leopold).
American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund "Calcium Catalyzed Homologous Conjugate Addition Reactions" (Nolin).
The Jeffress Foundation (renewal) "The Development of New Desymmetrization Reactions: Addition to Electron Deficient Cyclopropanes" (Nolin).
Department of Energy, NERSC, "A Theoretical Investigation of the Structure and Reactivity of the Molecular Constituents of Oil Sand and Oil Shale" (Parish).
American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund Type UR Program,"Understanding Diradical Behavior in Asphaltene Model Compounds" (Parish).
National Science Foundation, Research Opportunity Award - Supplement to Research at Undergraduate Institutions award, "A Theoretical Investigation of Multireference Diradical Systems" (Parish).
2010
National Science Foundation Research Coordination Networks-Undergraduate Biology Education (RCN-UBE) "Promoting Concept Driven Teaching Strategies in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology through Concept Assessments" (Bell).
Jeffress Trust - Renewal, "A Bridge from Molecule to Solid: Structural Preferences in Metal Hydride and Halide Monomers, and Implications for their Oligomers and Extended Solids" (Donald).
Thomas F. and Kate Miller Jeffress Memorial Trust, "Reaction Acceleration, Mediation, and Catalysis by In Situ Silylation" (Downey).
National Science Foundation Research at Undergraduate Institutions Program (RUI), "Chemical Investigations into the Bioactivity of the DNA Lesion 8-Oxo-2"-deoxyguanosine" (Hamm).
Thomas F. and Kate Miller Jeffress Memorial Trust, "Development of New Desymmetrization Reactions: Catalytic Additions to Electron Deficient Cyclopropanes" (Nolin).
Department of Energy, Sabbatical Supplement Request, "A Theoretical Investigation of the Structure and Reactivity of the Molecular Constituents of Oil Sand and Oil Shale" (Parish).
National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation Program, "Acquisition of High Performance Computers" (Parish).
National Science Foundation, RUI Supplement, "A Theoretical Investigation of Multireference Diradical Systems" (Parish).
National Resource for Biomolecular Simulation at the Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center, 50,000 node hours on the Anton supercomputer (Parish).
NCSA Teragrid, "A Theoretical Investigation of the Structure and Reactivity of the Molecular Constituents of Oil Sand and Oil Shale" (Parish).
2009
National Science Foundation Research Undergraduate Institutions (RUI), "Nanoparticle Film Assemblies: Interfaces for Controlling the Nanoscale Adsorption Environment and Electrochemical Behavior of Immobilized Redox Proteins" (Leopold).
Department of Energy, "A Theoretical Investigation of the Structure and Reactivity of the Molecular Constituents of Oil Sand and Oil Shale" (Parish).
National Science Foundation, Research Opportunity Award - Supplement to Research at Undergraduate Institutions award, "A Theoretical Investigation of Multireference Diradical Systems" (Parish with co-PI Erin Dahkle, Loras College).
National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation Program, "Acquisition of a High Performance Computer for the Molecular Education and Research Consortium in Undergraduate Computational ChemistRY (MERCURY)" (Parish, jointly with faculty at Connecticut, Hamilton, Mount Holyoke, Truman State, Westminster, Rhode Island, Wheaton, Rhodes, University of Central Arkansas and Queensborough Community College).
The Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation, "Science Fair Projects in Chemistry: A Visual Step-by-Step Educational and Motivational Tool" (Seeman).
Institutional Grant Activity
Suhor-Graham Foundation, "Nobel Laureate-in-Residence program" (Parish).
2008
Research Corporation (Cottrell College Science Award), "Preferences Across Phases: Structural Preferences in Metal Dihydride and Metal Dihalide Monomers, Oligomers, and Extended Solids" (Donald).
Thomas F. and Kate Miller Jeffress Memorial Trust, "A Bridge from Molecule to Solid: Structural Preferences in Metal Hydride and Halide Monomers, and Implications for their Oligomers and Extended Solids" (Donald).
National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation Program, "Acquisition of a High Performance Computer for the Molecular Education and Research Consortium in Undergraduate Computational ChemistRY (MERCURY)" (Donald and Parish; jointly with faculty at Connecticut, Hamilton, Mount Holyoke, Truman State, Westminster, Rhode Island, Wheaton, Rhodes, University of Central Arkansas and Queensborough Community College).
American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund Type GB Award, "Synthesis of Chiral Carboxylic Acid Derivatives via Three-Component Coupling Reactions with Ynoate Electrophiles" (Downey).
National Institutes of Health/NCI (AREA Program), "The Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Pyrrole Containing Marine Natural Products", 02/01/2008 to 01/31/2011 (Gupton).
American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund Type SUMR Program, (Parish).
The Jeffress Foundation renewal, "Potential Anti-cancer Warhead Drugs: A Theoretical Investigation of the Electronic Nature of Enediyne Cyclizations" (Parish).
National Science Foundation Research at Undergraduate Institutions Program (RUI), "A Theoretical Investigation of Multireference Diradical Systems" (Parish).
National Science Foundation, Research Opportunity Award - Supplement to Research at Undergraduate Institutions award "A Theoretical Investigation of Multireference Diradical Systems" (Parish, co-PI with Erin Dahkle, Loras College).
Institutional Grant Activity
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Undergraduate Science Education Program, 2008-2012, $1,400,000.
2007
Thomas F. and Kate Miller Jeffress Memorial Trust - Renewal "Genetically engineered protein biosensors for glutamate: an important human neurotransmitter" (Dattelbaum).
National Science Foundation, "Stability and structure of temperate and tropical marine sponge symbiont communities in response to climate change" (M. Hill, A. Hill and Dattelbaum).
Research Corporation Cottrell College Science Award, "A Tandem Enol Silane Formation-Mukaiyama Aldol Reaction: Controlling Cationic Silicon" (Downey).
Thomas F. and Kate Miller Jeffress Research Grant- Renewal, "The Development of New Stereoselective Intramolecular Pericyclic Reactions" (Downey).
Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, "Studies into the base pairing, repair and replication of the prominent promutagen 8-oxo-2'-deoxyguanosine using modified nucleotides" (Hamm).
Merck-AAAS Summer Undergraduate Science Research Program (Gentile, Parish, Bell, Dattelbaum, Hill, Hill, Gindhart, Kingsley).
NSF MRI, "MRI: Acquisition of Instrumentation for Creation of a Regional Undergraduate Biophysical Chemistry Research Cluster" (Gentile, Dattelbaum, Bell, Smith).
The Jeffress Foundation (Renewal), "Potential Anti-cancer Warhead Drugs: A Theoretical Investigation of the Electronic Nature of Enediyne Cyclizations" (Parish).
American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund Type SUMR Program (Parish).
Anonymous Foundation, "A Computational Comparison of HIV-1 and HIV-2" (Parish).
2006
Research Corporation, "Design of novel fluorescent protein biosensors" (Dattelbaum).
Thomas F. and Kate Miller Jeffress Memorial Trust - Renewal, "Genetically engineered protein biosensors for glutamate: an important human neurotransmitter" (Dattelbaum).
Thomas F. and Kate Miller Jeffress Research Grant- Renewal, "The Development of New Stereoselective Intramolecular Pericyclic Reactions" (Downey).
Commonwealth Health Research Board, "Crown-Ether Modified Nanoparticle Films As Metal Ion Sensing Materials" (Leopold).
The Jeffress Foundation (Renewal), "Potential Anti-cancer Warhead Drugs: A Theoretical Investigation of the Electronic Nature of Enediyne Cyclizations" (Parish).
Anoynmous Foundation, "A Computational Comparison of HIV-1 and HIV-2" (Parish).
2005
Thomas F. and Kate Miller Jeffress Memorial Trust, "Genetically engineered protein biosensors for glutamate: an important human neurotransmitter" (Dattelbaum).
University of Richmond Arts and Sciences Faculty Research Committee, "A New Stereoselective Claisen Rearrangement" (Downey).
Thomas F. and Kate Miller Jeffress Research Grant, "The Development of New Stereoselective Intramolecular Pericyclic Reactions" (Downey).
National Science Foundation CAREER award, "Macromolecular recognition and differential ion channel functioning" (Gentile).
The Bellingham Chapter of the Alzheimer's Society summer fellowship, "Biophysical and chromatographic characterization of presenilin-nicastrin interaction in the γ-secretase complex" (Preecs and Gentile).
Amgen summer fellowship, "Biophysical and chromatographic characterization of presenilin-nicastrin interaction in the γ-secretase complex" (Preecs and Gentile).
National Institutes of Health-AREA Program, "A Combination Strategy for Pyrrole Containing Alkaloids" (Gupton).
American Chemical Society - Petroleum Research Fund - Type G Research Grant, "Nanoparticle Platforms For Controlled Protein Adsorption and Behavior in Protein Monolayer Electrochemistry" (Leopold).
Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar award, "Computational Investigations of Biologically Important Systems" (Parish).
American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund Type SRF, "A Computational Investigation of Molecular Recognition and Binding Free Energies in Host Guest Systems" (Parish).
National Science Foundation Research Opportunity Award (ROA), "Cycloaromatization of arenediynes" (Parish).
Jeffress Foundation, "Potential Anti-cancer Warhead Drugs: A Theoretical Investigation of the Electronic Nature of Enediyne Cyclizations" (Parish).
National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation Program, "Acquisition of a Linux Cluster for the Molecular Education and Research Consortium in Undergraduate Computational ChemistRY (MERCURY)" (Parish; jointly with faculty at Connecticut, Hamilton, Mount Holyoke, Truman State, Westminster, Rhode Island and Wooster).
2004
The Bellingham Chapter of the Alzheimer's Society summer fellowship, "Biophysical characterization of presenilin-1 and selected Alzheimer's Disease mutants" (Jeppesen and Gentile).
Amgen summer fellowship, "Biophysical characterization of presenilin-1 and selected Alzheimer's Disease mutants" (Jeppesen and Gentile).
The Thomas F. Jeffress and Kate Miller Jeffress Memorial Trust, "Synthesis and Characterization of a Series of Dicopper Compounds for Use as Electrocatalysts in the Reduction of Carbon Dioxide" (Goldman).
National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates - Supplement to RUI, "Cycloaromatization of arenediynes" (Parish).
Patchett Foundation, "Summer Undergraduate Scholars" (Parish).
2003
Petroleum Research Fund "A Study on the Role of Triplet States in the Photochemistry of Organosilanes" (Abrash).
Research Corporation "A Study on the Role of Triplet States in the Photochemistry of Organosilanes" (Abrash).
National Institutes of Health AREA, "Structural differences between wild-type and pathogenic presenilin mutant" (Gentile).
American Chemical Society GB Program, "Probing protein-steroid interactions" (Gentile).
National Science Foundation - Major Research Instrumentation, "Acquisition of a Mass Spectrometer for Undergraduate Research" (Hamm, with Bell, Dominey, Gupton).
American Chemical Society - PRF Type G Grant, "Synthesis and Oligonucleotide Incorporation of Two 8-Oxo-2'-deoxyguanosine Analogues" (Hamm).
National Science Foundation - CAREER Award, "Chemical Investigations in the Bioactivity of the Damaged DNA Nucleotide 8-Oxo-2'-deoxyguanosine" (Hamm).
American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund Type B, "A Computational Investigation of Molecular Recognition" (Parish).
National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates - Supplement to RUI, "Cycloaromatization of arenediynes" (Parish).
American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund UFS (Undergraduate Faculty Sabbatical), "A Theoretical Investigation of the Electronic Nature of the Bergman Cyclization in Ten-Membered Enediynes" (Parish).
Patchett Foundation, "Summer Undergraduate Scholars" (Parish).
2002
National Science Foundation MRI award, "MRI/RUI: Acquisition of a 500-MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer at Western Washington University" (Vyvyan, Gentile, Wicholas).
Zymogenetics summer fellowship, "Mapping neurosteroid binding sites of the NMDA receptor" (Knight and Gentile).
Immunex summer fellowship, "Structural studies of neurosteroid binding to ionotropic glutamate receptors" (Spivak and Gentile).
Council on Undergraduate Research summer fellowship, "Structural analysis of the transmembrane spanning 6/7 loop of presenilin-II" (Fung and Gentile).
Jeffress Memorial Trust, "The Application of β-Chloroenones to the Synthesis of Lamellarin G Trimethyl Ether and Related Alkaloids" (Gupton).
Research Corporation Cottrell College Science Award, "Investigations into the Base Pairing and Enzyme Recognition of 8-Oxo-2'-deoxyguanosine through the use of Nucleotide Analogues" (Hamm).
Thomas F. Jeffress and Kate Miller Jeffress Memorial Trust, "Biologically Enhanced Metallic Nanoparticles - The Next Dimension of Protein Monolayer Electrochemistry" (Leopold).
National Science Foundation Research at Undergraduate Institutions, "Cycloaromatization of arenediynes" (Parish; jointly with K.C. Russell at Northern Kentucky University).
