Cougar Chemistry Friends,
Welcome to a new academic year as we celebrate many accomplishments from the past year and look forward to all of the exciting activities for 2025–2026! The WSU Chemistry Department continues to make impressive contributions in chemistry research, to provide excellent training for the next generation of chemists and chemistry researchers, and to actively enrich our community through extensive endeavors. Herein, I highlight a few notable achievements and things we look forward to in the year ahead.
We are sad to share that we have lost three previous and long-time faculty of the department, Ralph Yount, Kirk McMichael, and David Max Roundhill. See the details provided later in the newsletter – they will be sorely missed.
The graduate and undergraduate programs in chemistry continue to be vibrant with 55 current PhD students, 2 MS students, 129 BS and BA chemistry majors, and 22 undergraduate chemistry minors. We are excited to see all of the accomplishments of these students in the coming years.
The weekly departmental seminar continues this year with a developing slate of great speakers for the year. Our seminar schedule can be found on the Events & Seminars page of the department website.
There has been considerable good news on the federal funding front with Dr. Jeff Bell receiving two National Science Foundation (NSF) grants, including a prestigious NSF-CAREER; Dr. Anjali Sharma receiving two National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants over the summer, and Dr. Brian Clowers was just awarded a new NSF grant. Additionally, Dr. Choong-Shik Yoo (split between Shock Physics and Chemistry) received a new National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) grant. These recent successes build upon the continuing grants across many labs, maintaining the consistently high research output of the chemistry faculty and their labs.
This year, the department will be searching for a new senior faculty colleague who will assume the chair position, with a hopeful start date of August 2026. Students, faculty, and staff continue to make meaningful contributions to their fields, the education of students, and overall university activities respectfully, and we look forward to ongoing discoveries and success in the coming year!
Go Cougs!
Eric H. Roalson, Interim Chair