Department of Chemistry

West Chester University

Chemistry Information
Office: 119 Schmucker
Science Center South
West Chester, PA 19383
Phone (610) 436-2631
Fax (610) 436-2890
Email: Department Chair


Faculty Awards

Tim Starn, Chemistry, was awarded a grant from NSF's Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences titled Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds and their Impacts in a Changing Temperate Forest in the amount of $48, 475. The principal investigators will construct and test in the laboratory an automated measurement system consisting of a sampling apparatus, a two-dimensional gas chromatograph (GCxGC), and a calibration system to quantify ambient mixing ratios of speciated BVOCs and reaction products hourly. The development of a semi-autonomous measurement system for BVOCs and reaction products will enhance observational resolution for investigations of interactions among forest dynamics, oxidation processes, aerosol production, nitrogen and carbon sequestration, and associated feedbacks on climate. Results from the project will also extend the PROPHET data archive, which has been a valuable community resource for broader investigations of forest-atmosphere interactions.

Mahrukh Azam, Chemistry; Maureen Knabb, Biology; Loretta Rieser-Danner, Psychology; and Blaise Frost, Chemistry; were awarded $148,981 through a CCLI-NSF Phase I grant for a collaborative project entitled "An Integrative Project-Based Biochemistry Laboratory Curriculum at WCUPA."

Kurt Kolasinski, Chemistry, Outstanding Faculty Nominee, Honors Council & Honors Students Association; Talk of the Day Award, 7th International Conference on Porous Semiconductor Science and Technology, Valencia, Spain; Visiting Research Fellow, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany, July 2007, June 2008 and July 2010. Awarded several Sponsored Research Incentive Awards, he is listed in Marquis Who's Who in America and Who's Who in Science and Engineering. The third edition of his book: Surface Science: Foundations of Catalysis and Nanoscience (John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 2012) has been published. He edits the Surface Science Section of Current Opinion in Solid State & Materials Science, most recently, volume 15, issue 5, (2011). He received two grants from Vesta Sciences to develop new processes for the production of porous silicon powders. Awarded over $120,000 from the Tech Fee and CAS for the acquisition of a Brucker D2 Phaser X-ray Diffractometer.

Karyn Usher, Chemistry, received an Agilent Technologies Chromatography Grant in the amount of $10,000 in support of her ongoing research. She had an Agilent 1200 series instrument installed in her lab as a loan from Agilent Technologies which is part of a collaborative project initiated by funds from a CAS Entrepreneur Grant. Professor Usher gave an invited seminar entitled "Dispersion: following a band of molecules through the chromatographic system" at the American University of Beirut, Beirut Lebanon.