Graduate and undergraduate students and postdoctoral fellows collaborate with faculty and staff on research spanning all of the chemical sciences. We frequently collaborate across groups within the department, across campus, across states, and even across countries.
Scientists at UW-Madison benefit from the university’s rich history and tradition of scientific inquiry and exploration. Today, the Department of Chemistry serves as a major research hub on campus. The department’s annual research expenditures total more than $16 million and include grants from federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Energy, as well as numerous other public and private programs. Please see the individual path links to learn more about our diverse research efforts. The links below highlight recent Chemistry Department activities.
Research News
UW-Madison Researchers want to enhance your electronics
Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) are non-metallic layers situated between charged surfaces that will emit light in response to electrical currents. Most everyone interacts with organic light emitting diodes on a daily basis, maybe without even realizing it. In fact— you might be using one right now!
Blackwell and Lynn Lab Collaboration Discovers Novel Compounds from Quorum Sensing Assay
What started as a multi-year collaboration of researchers with varying scientific backgrounds from two lab groups – the Blackwell Lab in the Department of Chemistry and the Lynn Lab in the Department of Chemical and …
Wickens one of four UW-Madison researchers awarded prestigious Sloan Fellowships
Four University of Wisconsin–Madison professors, including Assistant Professor of Chemistry Zach Wickens, have been named to Sloan Research Fellowships — competitive, prestigious awards given to promising researchers in the early stages of their careers.
Coral skeleton formation rate determines resilience to acidifying oceans
A new University of Wisconsin–Madison study has implications for predicting coral reef survival and developing mitigation strategies against having their bony skeletons weakened by ocean acidification.
Schomaker among 13 new AAAS fellows from UW
Professor of Chemistry Jennifer Schomaker has been selected as an AAAS Fellow for distinguished contributions to organic chemistry through methods for catalyst-controlled C-H functionalization via nitrene transfer and complex amine synthesis employing unusual reactive intermediates.
WSJ: Clean energy from ammonia: UW discovery a step toward carbon-free economy
UW-Madison scientists have discovered a new way to capture energy from an everyday product that could be a key step to a carbon-free economy. Researchers in professor John Berry’s chemistry lab found that ammonia combined with a catalyst containing the metal ruthenium spontaneously produces nitrogen, releasing electrons that can be siphoned off.
Flexibility may be the key to potent peptides for treating diabetes
New research suggests that the peptides — short chunks of protein — used to treat Type 2 diabetes may be more effective if they’re able to flexibly move back and forth between different shapes.
Chemists discover new way to harness energy from ammonia
A research team at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has identified a new way to convert ammonia to nitrogen gas through a process that could be a step toward ammonia replacing carbon-based fuels. The discovery of this technique, which uses a metal catalyst and releases, rather than requires, energy, was reported Nov. 8 in Nature Chemistry and has received a provisional patent from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
An exciting discovery from an incorrect hypothesis
A hypothesis can be a scientists' best-educated guess about how an experiment might turn out or why they got specific results. Sometimes, they're not far off from the truth. Other times, they're wrong. Being wrong isn't always a bad thing. Often, it means that the researchers get to discover something new and exciting. This exact scenario happened when the Burstyn and Buller lab decided to work together on a project.
Prof. Clark Landis becomes UW-Madison Department of Chemistry chair
Clark Landis, who has been with the UW-Madison Department of Chemistry for 30 years, will take over as department chair on July 1, 2021, to begin a three-year term. His goals as department chair are to attract outstanding faculty and students, improve departmental infrastructure for research and education, and to complete our ongoing Departmental reorganization. These goals support the department in its mission to conduct world-class, groundbreaking research in the chemical sciences while offering the highest quality of education to undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral associates.
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