This summer our department acquired two instruments. The first (left) is a used GC-MS (gas chromatography mass spectrometer) donated to the university from the New York branch of Ascensia Diabetes Care. Organic chemistry adjunct Dr. James Noffsinger works at Ascensia's South Bend branch and arranged for the donation opportunity. Then IU Foundation officer Patrick McAleer at the Bloomington campus drove to New York to receive it and deliver it to us. Previously we had just one GC-MS for the entire two-semester organic chemistry sequence and research activities. Having two instruments will greatly increase the student experience so that students don't have to rush through an experiment to free the instrument for the next group. And if one instrument fails, we now have a backup. Thanks very much to Ascensia, Noffsinger, and McAleer for making this happen!
Our second instrument (right) is a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) instrument. This device detects the change in light reflected from a thin metal surface due to molecular interactions taking place on the other side of the surface. This instrument will find use in both our laboratory courses and research. It was purchased new using a combination of funds from the department and two grants from Rizk. We are very excited to see these instruments get a lot of use in next year's lab classes as we return to fully in-person laboratories.
