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What types of internship
opportunities are available?
Why are internships important
to the program?
What type of equipment
do students use in their laboratory courses?
Do students and faculty
work together on research projects?
Do students present research
findings at national conferences?
 What
types of internship opportunities are available?
Nearly
half of Missouri Western’s chemistry students
are involved in practical learning
experiences through internships and research projects. Companies
with international recognition, such as Boehringer Ingelheim
Vetmedica, Inc. and the Institute for Industrial and Applied Life Sciences, offer beneficial internship programs to
our students. In addition, all of our medical technology
students complete a yearlong clinical internship at an affiliated
hospital before completing requirements for the Bachelor
of Science degree program.
Why are
internships important to the program?
Experience
in the field is beneficial to each student’s education.
Internships provide students with a valuable hands-on experience
that is difficult to duplicate in the classroom. Students
are encouraged to take advantage of opportunities to participate
in internships offered by local and regional industries.
What type
of equipment do students use in their laboratory courses?
The
department maintains a large collection of modern chemical
instrumentation for chemical analysis and characterization.
Instrumentation for molecular spectroscopic
analysis and characterization includes a 300 MHz Bruker Avance
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectrometer, two Fourier Transform
Infrared spectrophotometers including a BioRad Excaliber
series instrument, a Varian Eclipse Fluorescence spectrophotometer,
and a variety of digital ultraviolet and visible spectrophotometers.
For atomic spectroscopy, the department uses a Perkin-Elmer
AAnalyst 300 Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer and a Leeman
Labs, Inc. Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectrophotometer. For separations of chemical
species the department maintains three high performance liquid
chromatographs including a Hitachi Instruments LaChrom2000
system, two Hewlett Packard Gas Chromatograph/Mass Spectrometers,
and three general-purpose gas chromatographs.When performing
electrochemical analysis, faculty and students may use the
ECO CHEMIE Autolab Type II General Purpose Electrochemical
System or an EG&G Princeton Applied Research Polarographic
Analyzer. Other miscellaneous instrumentation
include a Sonics VibraCell Ultrasonic Processor/ Cell Disruptor,
American Scientific Products Omnifuge RT refrigerated centrifuge,
and Barnstead EasyPure II UV Ultrapure Water System.
 Do
students and faculty work together on research projects?
Faculty
members in the Department of Chemistry each have ongoing
research projects in which undergraduate students can serve
as research collaborators. Students are encouraged to work
one-on-one with faculty members in this research. One recent
project of two students and a faculty member was the “Mineral-Based Oxides as Solid Phase Catalysts
in the Preparation of Soybean-Based Biodiesel.”
Some examples of additional faculty and student
projects include the Summer Research Institute, student-faculty
collaborative research within the department as part of the
required coursework for the Bachelor of Science degree program
during regular semesters, and National Science Foundation-sponsored
Research Experiences for Undergraduate students at regional
and national universities completed under a competitive selection
process.
Do students
present research findings at national conferences?
Students
have the opportunity to enhance their education by attending
professional conferences in their field. Numerous chemistry
students have had the opportunity to present at the American
Chemical Society’s (ACS’s) National
Conference in California and Louisiana.
Some specific presentations include:
- National ACS meeting in San Diego,
2005 – “Development
of Inquiry Centered Activities
for the Secondary Chemistry Classroom.”
- National ACS meeting in Anaheim,
Calif., 2004 – “Evidence
for the Generation of p-Diphenoquindimethane.”
- National ACS meeting in Anaheim,
Calif., 2004 – “Mineral-Based
Oxides as Solid Phase Catalysts
in the Preparation of Soybean-Based
Biodiesel.”
- National ACS meeting in New Orleans,
La., 2003 – “Development
of the Laboratory Component for
a Physical Chemistry for Biological
Sciences Course.”
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