Department of Chemistry

The Department of Chemistry at UIS is designed to prepare students for direct entry into the chemical profession or for further studies in graduate or professional programs.

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Thank you for a great 2016-17 academic year from the Department of Chemistry. We’re excited to see you back for 2017-18 in the Fall.

May 22, 2017

Congratulations to all of our 2017 graduates in Chemistry and Biochemistry! See our 2017 Award winners on our Students Page.

March 30, 2017

UIS Chemistry graduate Ian Tinsley wins two graduate student awards from Eastern Illinois University – Read the story on our Students Page.

October 11, 2016

Mallincrodt Pharmaceuticals donates HPLC to Department of Chemistry – Read the story on our Instruments page

June 22, 2016

The Illinois Board of Higher Education has approved our new Biochemistry major! . Look for curriculum details under curriculum – Biochemistry Major.

Student Focus

Ashley Bowers ’16

Hometown: Elgin, IL
Major: Chemistry
Began a PhD in Chemistry Fall 2016

Ashley Bowers

Ashley loves to volunteer! At the University of Illinois Springfield, she’s a member of the Leadership for Life service organization, which gives back to the Springfield community. She’s also the Chemistry Club Treasurer, and a math lab tutor. She recently spent a summer interning with the U.S. Department of Energy at the Argonne National Laboratory. She chose to come to UIS because of its friendly atmosphere and small class sizes.

Leadership is lived at UIS. Every day.

Faculty Focus

  • Dr. Layne Morsch made 3 presentations (one including UIS undergraduate student Tonda Chasteen) on Interinstitutional Chemistry Communication at the 253rd American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting, San Francisco, CA (April 2017).
  • Dr. Layne Morsch had a peer reviewed chapter titled “Flipped Teaching in Organic Chemistry Using iPad Devices” published in the book The Flipped Classroom Volume 1: Background and Challenges (Nov 2016).
  • Dr. Keenan Dungey along with Dr. Michael Lemke (Biology) and Jonathan GoldbergBelle (International Programs) received a $25,000 Innovation Fund grant from Coca-Cola to help students compare river ecosystems in Brazil and Illinois. Read more about it in UIS News (Nov 2016).
  • Dr. Keenan Dungey and Dr. Stephen Johnson were recipients of 2016 CLAS Faculty Excellence Awards. Read more about it in Faculty Focus (Oct 2016).
  • Dr. Layne Morsch was invited to give a talk titled “Flipping Organic! Active learning in organic chemistry through iPads, iTunes U and ChemWiki” at the 2016 Biennial Conference in Chemical Education in a symposium on Active learning in organic chemistry (Aug 2016).
  • Dr. Layne Morsch presented a poster titled “Lights, Camera, Science Action” at the 2016 ISTE(International Society for Technology in Education) along with colleagues and fellow Apple Distinguished Educators Rhoda Hahn and Maggie Mabery. A website was created to share the materials with other instructors (June 2016).
  • Dr. John Martin was part of a major collaborative team that recently published an article in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (March 2016).
    Interacting supernovae and supernova impostors. LSQ13zm: an outburst heralds the death of a massive star.
  • Dr. Harshavardhan Bapat leads the team that brings kids to the UIS campus for Camp Invention (June 20-24, 2016) for a second year. They are encouraged to explore STEM fields with fun and creativity.
  • Read a recent (2016) article published in Peptides by Dr. Stephen Johnson.
    A reexamination of poneratoxin from the venom of the bullet ant Paraponera clavata
  • Dr. Keenan Dungey (along with Dr. Michael Lemke from Biology) have written a chapter titled “Mike and Keenan’s Excellent Emiquon Adventure” in the book Chemistry for the Curious: Why Study Chemistry. published in 2016 from The Curious Academic Publishing Co., Canberra (AU).