Dedicated to Teaching and Cutting Edge Research!

The Tufts University Chemistry Department provides an exciting and intellectually stimulating environment for undergraduate and graduate students to participate in cutting edge research projects that encompass the many diverse interests of the faculty and reflects the interdisciplinary nature of modern chemical research. While drawing heavily on the traditional chemistry subdisciplines, and assuring expertise in the fundamentals, we also provide the opportunity to explore beyond the traditional boundaries.

Prof. Charles Sykes, and his research group have just demonstrated the world’s first single molecule electric motor. Their paper appearing in Nature Nanotechnology was covered by the BBC, MSNBC and New Scientist. Sykes was named a 2008 Beckman Young Investigator, a Cottrell Scholar of Research Corporation, an IUPAC Young Observer, was the recipient of a 2009 NSF CAREER Award, and in 2011 named a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar. His research group focuses on imaging, characterizing and manipulating matter at the atomic-scale with an emphasis on catalysis, chirality, and directed molecular motion.

The first wet chemical analysis on Mars, lead by Prof. Samuel Kounaves as a Phoenix mission Co-I and his Tufts research team, has revealed an alkaline soil containing a variety of soluble minerals including perchlorate, altering the way we view Mars' geochemistry and its potential to support life. Kounaves is also using "extreme analytical chemistry" to unravel mysteries about Earth's environment and life in the Antarctic Dry Valleys, Death Valley, and deep ocean thermal vents. See C&EN, NYTimes, and NOVA Now.

Prof. Arthur Utz and his group have accomplished the long-standing goal of exerting bond-selective control over heterogeneous catalysis. The work extends strategies for laser-based chemical control from the gas phase to surface reactions important in industrial catalysis and materials deposition. It also reveals the rates and pathways for energy flow during methane activation, which is rate limiting in the industrial production of H₂. For more see C&EN and Science.

Giving proteins Teflon-like properties by inserting fluorinated amino acids into them has been one of Prof. Krishna Kumar's on going research goals. Recent studies by his research team have shown that fluorination of biologically active antimicrobial peptides is an effective strategy for improving their stability and antimicrobial therapeutic value.  In addition to antibiotics, Kumar's work includes the design of fluorinated drug delivery systems and potential cancer drugs. For more see C&EN and Drug Discovery News articles.