Bridget Gourley, DePauw University (00:03): Welcome to Chem4REAL, because research engages all learners. This podcast is hosted by the Chemistry Division of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR). We are a community of faculty nationwide who walk the talk of engaging student learning through undergraduate research. Each episode, we will discuss recent findings, experiments, and strategies to assist faculty in defining, expanding, and building a community of lifelong learners around undergraduate research experiences. Whether in a classroom, laboratory, or the community, undergraduate research increases student engagement, advances student adaptability, and promotes overall resilience. Bridget Gourley, DePauw University (00:50): Today I'm fortunate to be talking with Joe Reczek, Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Denison University. Joe, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and your institution. For example, briefly share, as I like to say, the flavor of chemistry you are most passionate about, some research questions your group is currently focusing on, and a small bit about your institutional context, for our listeners. Joe Reczek, Denison University (01:16): Yes. I'd be delighted to, so first of all, thank you Bridget, for having me today and for participating in this. So Denison University is a small liberal arts college and about... in central Ohio, near Columbus. We have about 2100 undergraduates. I am an Organic Chemist, by nature, I like to say, I ended up that way. I teach primarily sophomore Organic and some upper level courses. And my research is focused on developing new types of organic materials chemistry for sustainable technologies. In particular, we work with, molecular liquid crystal materials for say optical information storage, or even solar energy conversion. So trying to get a sustainability angle in the, in the realm of Organic Chemistry there. Bridget Gourley, DePauw University (02:08): So tell us a little bit about Denison. Joe Reczek, Denison University (02:12): So Denison is a, as I said, a liberal arts college near Columbus, Ohio, about 2100 undergraduates. What's nice about working there is that it is a very kind of close knit community. We are in the small town of Granville, Ohio, which is about 30 minutes from Columbus, which I wouldn't call rural, but it's definitely not urban. And, so we're located up on a little hill. I have a beautiful, beautiful campus and the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, which I'm in, has its own building, Ebaugh Laboratories. And, we are actually a department of full... 10 full time, uh, tenure, tenure track faculty positions, just a little plug. We are hiring this coming year... for that temp position, which is currently open please... But.. It's a, it's a really nice place. We have about 20 to 25 majors in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department per year. We have a... usually a nice summer research program of 20 to 25 students on campus all summer. This summer, unfortunately, we do not have any on campus. We have a few remote researchers, which I think we're going to talk about. Bridget Gourley, DePauw University (03:24): As we all know, Council on Undergraduate Research has been engaged in a strategic planning process, and as has been a focus of past plans, developing a culture and community that actively prioritizes diversity, equity and inclusion for the organization is one of five goals, moving forward. You mentioned to me that you decided to offer a remote research internship to two of your students this summer. Tell me a little bit about the particular project that you mentioned, and now that we're into the summer, how's it going for those students? You were talking about keeping them engaged in science and connected to Denison. Joe Reczek, Denison University (04:03): Yeah, that's exactly right. So... I had previously committed back in January to... four students to work in the lab full-time, 10 weeks, over the summer. And then all of a sudden that simply wasn't a possibility. You know, I kind of did a little soul searching and said, well, can I offer a genuine research experience to these students? And I, I'm a synthetic organic chemist that does a lot of experimentation that doesn't lend itself very well to, to a, at home work. But I had some experience with molecular modeling, and I thought, you know, in particular, I really want to offer them something. The alternative of nothing at all was unacceptable. So what I did is I came up with essentially a compromise, one that I felt would be worthwhile to do. And that is we use, actually Spartan, which is a molecular modeling program. Joe Reczek, Denison University (05:02): And so they can actually build some of the molecules, that I would like to have had them make this summer, in Spartan, investigate some of their properties; you know, we were interested in things like electrostatic potential maps of the surfaces. We do some self assembly. So the students have a series, an iterative series of molecules. They calculate their properties, they're dipole moments. They then try and do energy minimizations to see what their conformational structures are, and how two such molecules might interact. It seems to be going really well. In fact, you know, there's a lot going on. I have three young kids and I'm not always as available as I'd like to be, and they are hounding me as opposed to the other way around. They are emailing me, 'did you look at the structure yet? What do you think? What should we do next?' Joe Reczek, Denison University (05:53): And they really enjoy it. And as of the two weeks, I've started thinking about leveraging this to the fall, and I feel much more comfortable kind of going into the fall, knowing that regardless of what the situation is, I'm going to be able to engage with... with some research students in some productive ways. We've already identified a couple molecules that I had thought would be good targets, and now I don't think it would be as good. And so when we do get back in the lab, our priority has shifted a little bit as to what we're actually going to make ,as a result of their work. So I'm really happy about that. Really excited. Bridget Gourley, DePauw University (06:30): Sounds like you're having a similar experience to me, maybe for different reasons. My two students are often emailing me back. 'Did you take a look at that code?' So I know, I know that feeling. Could you touch a little bit about how this project offering might be seen as an individual contribution you're making to supporting diversity equity and inclusion in STEM? Joe Reczek, Denison University (06:55): Yeah. So the two students I'm talking about one is I, I know self identified as a first-generation college student, and the other one is a black woman who is...wants to major in the Department. And, you know, for those students, at the time, I really thought... I... I didn't want those students to go away all summer and lose a connection, lose a sense of belonging that I've been trying to build in the lab for them. You know, I know that particularly when, when, you know... that my black student walks into the classroom, more often than not, she sees no one else that looks like her, you know? And so I've, I've tried intentionally to reach out and recruit proactively and say, look, I I've noticed you're interested. Would you, would you like to come do your research? I, I did some of that groundwork for both of these students in the, in the fall. Joe Reczek, Denison University (07:49): I, I do try to, to make myself intentionally available to traditionally underrepresented students. And then I, I honestly thought, geez, I, I want to show them that I'm committed to science. I'm committed to their engagement in science and in chemistry. And so anything else I can do. So, so I guess the way I think it's an individual contribution is that really a large driving force for me to pull the trigger and do this was: I can't let these students go for a whole summer and not think about chemistry again after... after I tried so hard to build up their belonging and place in the chemistry lab. Bridget Gourley, DePauw University (08:27): I love that because I do think, I like to borrow a term from the environmental movement of some years ago of, think globally, but act locally. And I think that's a really great example of acting locally and saying, what is that outcome that I want to achieve? I really want to make sure that a diverse group of individuals feels welcome in this field that I know and love. And how do I achieve that? Joe Reczek, Denison University (08:53): That's exactly right. Recognizing that not everyone is going to go home from school and have the same environment. For one of those students, internet access is a real struggle. So I, I'm trying to find a way to give them a positive outlet. Cause for some of my other students, it's actually pretty easy for them to still read science papers and, and engage in a way.