Aerial view of campus with Williamsport, the Susquehanna River and Bald Eagle Mountain as a backdrop

Student Research

Many research projects are available at Lycoming College in synthetic organic, organometallic, inorganic, physical, and analytical chemistry. All the Chemistry faculty have projects in which students can involve themselves - or you may have an idea which a faculty member could supervise. Projects may take one of four forms:

  1. Internships. These are jointly sponsored by the College and a public or private agency and allow you to earn credit while doing research outside of the school.
  2. Chemistry Research Methods. These are taken as a course, but instead of studying a text you can do research in the laboratory under the supervision of a faculty member. Normally a paper is produced and presented orally to the Department for a grade.
  3. Honors. If you are an excellent chemistry student, you may qualify for departmental honors. This requires you to produce a substantial research paper which is defended orally in front of a committee of three faculty members.
  4. Summer Research. Funds are available at Lycoming to pay students to do full-time research over summer vacation. Credit may be earned for such work if you desire.

Student research plays a vital role in preparing for your career. We believe that the undergraduate research program is one of the strengths of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Lycoming College.

2007 summer research

Every summer faculty and students work together in lab doing chemistry research; here is the summer group: (front row, left to right): Charles Mahler, Chriss McDonald, Holly Bendorf, Jeremy Ramsey (back row, left to right): Brandon Zarzyczny, Oscar Wheeler, Kyle Totaro, James Grant (not pictured- John Stutzman)

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Kelly Howerter distilling solvents in Dr. McDonald's lab.

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Olivia English having fun with dry ice from a reaction in Dr. Mahler's lab.

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Dan DiRocco doing column chromatography in Dr. Bendorf's lab.

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Theresa LaBarte acquires an NMR spectrum as part of her research with Dr. Bendorf.