Chemistry Faculty Member Awarded BRIN Collaborative Research Grant (May 5, 2003)

On May 5, 2003, it was announced that Dr. Christian Grattan, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, in collaboration Dr. Daniel Reger, Professor of Chemistry and Chair at USC, has been competitively awarded a $50,000 EPSCOR Collaborative Research Program Grant.  Winthrop's share of the grant is $35,193. The grant will support research on the "Supramolecular Structures of Coordination Polymers Formed from Linked Ligands;” it will involve a number of students at Winthrop over the next 18 months in both research and course work.

This grant was one of eleven awarded among a large number of proposals submitted.  Reviews and evaluations were done by a team of scientists from outside of the state; awards were made based upon the rankings of experts in the fields of proposed research.

The Collaborative Research Program is a statewide effort to build research infrastructure at primarily undergraduate institutions throughout the state.  The program requires collaborative partnerships between faculty at primarily undergraduate schools and research university faculty who are currently the Principal Investigator on another major funded research grant.

Dr. Grattan's grant provides funding for student and faculty summer research, for materials and supplies, and for some travel.  The research grant will continue the progress made during this academic year that resulted in a student presentation at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society and the synthesis since then of a never before made organic complex that appears to have successfully linked two silver metal ions.

Dr. Grattan's project would directly involve three to five Winthrop research students during summers and during the academic years and would be a tremendous boost to the student organic chemistry research program.  Students in the chemical synthesis laboratory course next spring will also all actively participate in some aspect of the proposed research at an important time in their undergraduate development as they decide what graduate area of specialization to pursue.

Dr. Grattan's grant will also increase the state funding that Winthrop will receive in future years, since the current funding formula adds to SC institutions' allocation an additional 37.5% of all research expenditures that are made with non-state funds.

Dr. Grattan is a graduate of Allegheny College where he was president of his class and completed his Ph.D. at USC under the direction of Dr. Reger.  Christian joined the Winthrop faculty in August 2001, has actively participated in the General Education program development, and is this year's recipient of the Joe Davis Teaching award in chemistry.