Whitman’s new Science Center, which opened for classes in September, is the focus of research, discussion, and study for chemistry students and faculty as well as those in other sciences. Adam Hardtke, ’03 2 Whitman Magazine Teaching and Learning c h e m i s t r y The Stevens Atrium is airy and filled with space and light. Rising high on one side is a wall of Texas limestone embedded with thousands of small-animal fossils. A stairway of wood treads in an open framework of steel and glass sweeps up three floors in a shower of natural light from above. Through glass walls two chemistry laboratories are open to view, including one where large exhaust snorkels hang above student work- stations equipped with state-of-the-art scientific instruments. In these labs and three others in this new Science Center, lots of chemistry is going on. If you’re a chemistry student at Whitman College you will spend whole afternoons in a laboratory that has the latest and best instru- ments and equipment, a stockroom with all your supplies and solutions As classes begin in the close at hand, and the most advanced safety features available. Best of new Science Center, three students meet in the all there will be just you, your professor, and fewer than two dozen of Stevens Atrium. This your fellow students. brightly lit display case If you are a senior chemistry major, you will be working beside and others now contain various scientific instru- your professor in a lab with as few as five or six other students. You ments and collections of may have spent the previous summer working on a research project rare shells, fossils, and mineral samples. — continued on page 4 At left, a wall of windows provides a view of laboratory work carried on by Eric Hennen, left, Stephen Muir, and Ryan Nelson. In this lab, ceiling-mounted exhaust snorkels can be precisely directed to draw off fumes from an experiment. 3 Whitman Magazine along with graduate students at a university. Or, you may be collaborating with a Whitman professor on your own research project. “We have high expectations,” says Professor Chuck Templeton. “We expect students both to learn theory and to be able to apply it. We emphasize problem-solving, and we prepare our students thoroughly for graduate school or work in industry.” All senior chemistry majors do original research projects. Often they capture highly competitive summer research posi- tions offered by universities, or they collaborate with Whitman professors in research on campus or elsewhere, such as at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington. Following the research, students write final research reports, or theses if they are aiming for honors in their major, and they present seminars on their work. The Whitman Under- graduate Conference serves as one opportunity, with many students giving multimedia-assisted presentations or poster presentations. “We really stress the need for students to be able to convey their science not only to other scientists but also to the general public,” Templeton says. Outstanding senior chemistry majors also have opportu- nities to present their research at professional meetings. Seven students, for example, will accompany Professor Frank Dunni- vant this spring to the national American Chemical Society meeting in New Orleans, where they will present their research. Whitman’s chemistry faculty back up their high expecta- tions for students with daily personal attention. And the new Science Center encourages interaction and collaboration among faculty and students. Faculty members have personal research labs adjacent to their offices where they can work with students, and the building’s many study lounges promote contact between students and faculty. “Students can work together to solve problems. They can write lab reports there, take exams, work with tutors, or just relax,” says Templeton. Most of all, he notes, the lounges make it easy for students and faculty to get together for casual conversation. Informal interaction like this is exactly the kind of experience that is most memorable to Whitman alumni. The atrium stairway’s treads are of warm-grained wood, milled in Walla Walla from three locust trees that stood just west of the original science building. The Adam Hardtke, ’03 old trees, at the end of their natural life span, were in danger of falling. 4 Whitman Magazine At work in the organic chemistry laboratory are, from left, Maggie Ross, Nick Zifcak, and Julia Barcelo. In this lab, students do all of their work in large fume hoods, which make the laboratory safer and more pleasant when students are using volatile or hazardous compounds. Adam Hardtke, ’03 New laboratories enhance real science ith 24 workstations apiece, three for the storage of hazardous and flam- or university labs. “We have acquired W laboratories in the new Science mable chemicals. about $500,000 worth of equipment Center accommodate eight sections Students taking instrumental meth- for approximately $6,000 in shipping of general chemistry during the week. ods, physical chemistry, or environ- charges,” Dunnivant says. Those Each is next to a satellite stockroom mental chemistry courses work in a instruments include two atomic absorp- which contains the supplies for the day laboratory that contains various pieces tion spectrophotometers. brought from the main stockroom to of high-tech instrumentation, some Occasionally a piece of instrumenta- be dispensed as needed. Next to each designed to do trace analysis of pollut- tion turns out to be a lemon. In that laboratory is a “balance room,” con- ants in air and water. case, Dunnivant and his students apply taining sensitive instruments on which Professor Frank Dunnivant has it to a different learning experience by students can weigh samples as light as acquired much of the instrumenta- taking it apart and using the parts to a human hair or a fingerprint. tion for this lab at little or no cost as build something else or to repair exist- Each laboratory has a learning cen- surplus from government, industry, ing instruments. ter for pre-lab lectures. “All students can see the chalkboard at the learning center from their workstations,” says Professor Chuck Templeton. “We can do the pre-lab lecture and discuss the experiment, then the students can immediately get to work. In addition, we can leave equations or other infor- mation on the board for reference.” In the organic chemistry lab, each student sets up his or her experiment at a workstation featuring a sink and controls for water, air, lights, voltage, heat, and vacuum. Each of these 24 workstations is contained within a large fume hood, which makes the laboratory safer when volatile or haz- ardous compounds are used. In addition, the organic chemistry stockroom and the main chemistry Instructor Deberah Simon confers with general chemistry students Andy stockroom contain vented cabinets McKeever, left, and Geoff Bergreen. 5 Whitman Magazine C h e m i s t r y S t u d e n t s John Terence Turner John Terence Senior chemistry major Josh Wnuk, left, and Assistant Professor Frank Dunnivant try out the software on Two seniors conduct research a brand new gas chromatograph. in environmental chemistry We had it “purring like a kitten,” says Wnuk. s a first-year student, Josh from Lynnwood, Washington. Wnuk became infected He believes his study will disprove A with chemistry professor decades of industrial research Frank Dunnivant’s enthusiasm. which has purported to show that As a senior, he is set on earning dredging is not detrimental to an a Ph.D. and pursuing a career in ecosystem. environmental chemistry. “Industry says that after the “Now I get to work side by side initial fast-release of adsorbed with Professor Dunnivant on pollutants from a particle of sedi- research that is really meaningful ment, there is no further signifi- to the ecosystems that are being cant release, even though a thin decimated by industrial practices.” filament of pollutant — the ‘slow- His senior research “revolves release phase’ — still adheres to around the issue of dredging and the sediment. the negative environmental impact “My research hopefully will that it has,” says Wnuk, who is show a mechanism illustrating the 6 Whitman Magazine The research Erin Finn did for her senior project is part of the body of continuing research that may develop into a way to clean up the Hanford nuclear waste site, she says. Below at right, Finn works in the lab with senior Ana Petrovic, left. opposite. Once the particle has own research, Wnuk serves as an country clean up hazardous waste. settled and is buried by other parti- organic-lab assistant and instrument “I’m most definitely an environmental cles, it is no longer being purged by assistant for the chemistry depart- chemist although, as a sort of side- the water. During this period, the ment and tutors other students, a line, radiochemistry is really interest- pollutant forms a new fast-release task that is “unquestionably one of ing, too.” and slow-release phase. When my greatest pleasures,” he notes. The research she did for her the particle is agitated again, the Away from the Science Center, senior project is part of the body of new fast-release phase is purged, Wnuk works in Penrose Library as continuing research that may develop leading to adverse effects on the circulation student manager. Last fall, into a way to clean up the Hanford environment.” adding yet another responsibility, nuclear waste site. Last summer Wnuk was one he joined the debate team and plans “My senior research involved of three of Professor Dunnivant’s to continue competing during the doing kinetics studies on oxidizing students to work on developing spring semester.