Caltech Chemistry Club

Research Opportunities

Check out small glimpses of this summer's research.

Rising senior Eva Nichols has spent the summer in Poland, and will be continuing her adventures studying abroard in France. Here's what she has to say:
This summer I did a SURF at the Polish Academy of Sciences Institute of Organic Chemistry in Warsaw, Poland. My project was to make a three-component system that would noncovalently self-assemble in solution and facilitate multistep electron and energy transfer. Many of my products were highly fluorescent (such as corroles, which are aromatic macrocycles that display deep red fluorescence under UV), making the chemistry particularly pleasing. On the weekends, I travelled extensively around the country: I attended a traditional Belarusian music festival in Eastern Poland, went swimming in the Baltic Sea near Gdansk, climbed two mountains in a day near the border with Slovakia, and visited a dragon cave in Kraków. I also explored Warsaw’s Old Town, went to open-air movie screenings, and listened to the music of Frederik Chopin in the Royal Bath Gardens. Living and working abroad had its fair number of challenges, but I made some great friends and appreciated the opportunity to gain a new perspective on my time at Caltech!

    Eva at Chopin concert in Łazienki Park
    Hiking in the Tatra Mountains near Slovakia

    Corroles in solution under UV
    Corroles on the column under UV










Harry's Surfs
Professor Harry Gray does a wide variety of research from ways to harness solar energy, to inorganic catalysts. Rocio Mercado (2013) spent the summer working on the development of various cobalt diglyoxime complexes for catalytic hydrogen evolution with her mentor Mike Rose. SURFs from the Peters group, Marissa, Luis, and Justin, spent the summer working on metallic compounds for either carbon dioxide or hydrogen reduction.
Pictured above left to right: Mateo Martinez (Gray, 2014), Luis Navarro (Peters, 2013), Justin Wolfe(Peters, 2012 Brown University), Rocio Mercado (Gray, 2013), Christine Chang (Agapie, 2013) Professor Harry Gray, Dylan Sures (Gray, 2013), Dong Woo Shin (Gray, 2013), Katja Luxem (Gray, 2014), Megan Jackson (Gray, 2013). Not pictured (photographer) Marissa Barrientos (Peters, 2012)