Seven Monmouth University chemistry graduates and Greg Moehring, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry, have recently had a manuscript accepted for publication in Inorganica Chimica Acta, an international peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Elsevier devoted to original research articles in the field of inorganic chemistry.
The manuscript describes all of the dynamic physical processes that occur for a class of eight-coordinate complexes — a series of five similar new molecules — that each contain a single rhenium metal atom at the molecule’s center and five hydrogen atoms bound to the rhenium atom. Compounds such as those described in the manuscript are of interest because of their ability to catalytically transform smaller inexpensive chemicals into larger more expensive chemicals. All of the results described in the manuscript were obtained at Monmouth University.
The seven graduates who contributed to this research are Heather Siebert ’14, currently finishing her Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry at Purdue University; Georga Torres ’17, who works in information technology at the Hovchild group; Devyn Streisel ’17, who works as a chemist for Shamrock Foods Company in Virginia; Andrew Petrou ’18, who will start medical school in the coming fall semester; Alexis Scorzelli ’18, employed with the Virginia State Crime Lab; Brian Macalush ’18, a chemist for Asta Pharmaceuticals; and Chloe Joswick ’19, who will be continuing her education at Monmouth University for her secondary teaching certificate in chemistry.
“I am proud that the research students I have worked with can make important contributions to significant research outcomes such as our accepted manuscript,” said Moehring. “I am also pleased that, so far, 21 of my research students have co-authored with me over the course of my 30-year faculty career. A student co-authorship is an indelible mark of academic success beyond the classroom and the transcript.”
Each student picked up one aspect of the research with much collaboration between researchers as techniques and skills were often taught to a new student by more experienced students. Much of the work was performed during and with the support of the School of Science Summer Research Program.