The department of chemistry at Hope College has received two major grants in support of its on-going efforts to keep its instrumentation state-of-the-art.
A $150,000 award from the National Science
Foundation (NSF) is helping the college acquire a new
nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer. A $107,338
award through the Hewlett-Packard U.S. University Equipment
Grants program is funding the acquisition of a new gas
chromatograph and a new mass spectrometer.
All three instruments are replacing earlier models
that have become outdated, according to Dr. William Mungall,
who is the Elmer E. Hartgerink Professor of Chemistry at
Hope and authored the Hewlett-Packard grant request. Each
will be used in chemistry laboratory course work during the
school year, and by students and faculty engaged in research
during the school year and summer.
According to Mungall, the gas chromatograph and
mass spectrometer will also be used in the college's
recently-established program in the environmental sciences,
which blends several of the natural and physical sciences.
The new 400 Megahertz NMR, larger and featuring
more work stations for users, will allow more students to
work with it than was possible with its predecessor. "We
plan to get our sophomore students using the instrument
through the laboratory program," said Dr. Michael Silver,
professor of chemistry and author of the NSF proposal. "I
don't think that's done anywhere else."
The gas chromatograph and mass spectrometer will
be installed in time for the beginning of the forthcoming
spring semester in January. The NMR spectrometer will be
installed in May, near or immediately after the end of the
spring semester.