The Oakwood College HBCU-UP Targeted Infusion Project will allow the college to improve and strengthen its chemistry program to meet American Chemical Society (ACS) certification requirements. This will be accomplished through the acquisition of two critical pieces of equipment (Atomic Absorption, and Gas Chromatograph with a Mass Spectrometer Detector) and the upgrading of a 60 MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) to an FT-NMR instrument. Oakwood College is a Historically Black Seventh day Adventist institution. The student body is 98% minority and 57% female. There are 60 chemistry and biochemistry majors and 232 biology majors that will be impacted by the instruments requested.
The proposed equipment will enhance the undergraduate experience in the entire chemistry curriculum. New and innovative experiments will be selected and incorporated into several existing courses at every level to increase the breath and depth of chemical education. New courses which could not be offered without the new equipment will be developed and offered in the department. The Oakwood College Chemistry Department will then be in a position to seek ACS certification of its program. In addition to positioning the college to earn this important nationally recognized certification, the new instruments will increase the number of students conducting undergraduate research in the department.
