The Desjardins Research Group
The theoretical description of the rates of chemical reactions is given by the subject of chemical dynamics. As computers have gotten more powerful, chemists have been able to describe the time evolution of increasingly complicated chemical mechanisms. Still, the complexity of biochemical pathways is sufficient to make it difficult for a working biochemist to even write down the basic equations. We are working on using Maple software to generate the dynamic equations and simulate a pathway given only a basic schematic of the biochemical system. These schematics will look as much as possible like the mechanisms drawn in most biochemistry books. As an example, we will try to simulate the Malate–Aspartate shuttle, a fairly well known pathway that transfers an electron across the mitochondrial membrane.

The France Research Group
The France Group is interested in the synthesis of chiral ligands for applications in asymmetric catalysis. This field of chemical research is of tremendous importance due to the implications of stereochemistry in areas such as pharmaceuticals. Many organic compounds can exist as two different non-superimposable mirror images. Known as enantiomers, these compounds will respond differently in many environments, including in our own bodies. This effect is responsible for the difference between the tastes of spearmint and caraway-the molecules that give each such distinctive flavors are actually mirror images of one another. The common pain killer Aleve can also exist as two enantiomers-one that is actually sold and another that acts as a liver toxin. Projects under exploration in the France Group involve the preparation of chiral compounds that might be applied to catalysis to allow selective synthesis of one enantiomer. The group is currently working on the preparation of chiral fluorinated ligands as well as a family of chiral phosphorus, nitrogen ligands.

The Uffelman Research Group
The Uffelman group is developing a set of novel polyamide macrocyclic ligands in order to expand the fundamental chemistry and Green Chemistry applications of iron-catalyzed oxidation reactions. Currently we are in our third iteration of ligand syntheses, which has been highly successful. This research program has, to date, involved forty-two different undergraduates, who gain experience in various NMR techniques, IR spectroscopy, inert atmosphere synthetic methods, and organic and inorganic synthesis. Sixteen of these students have done more than one summer of research in the group.