As a student at Otterbein, you can choose to put your education to work through an internship experience and learn more about the profession you're planning to enter. Being on the job with people who know the profession well can help you clarify your career goals, and the experience is valuable in gaining admission to graduate and professional school. A wide variety of internship opportunities are offered by chemical industries in the greater Columbus area. Otterbein chemistry students have worked at local companies including Nestle, Ashland Chemical, Chemical Abstracts, Worthington Industries, Borden and Ross Labs. Up to five credit hours may be earned toward college graduation requirements.
Each department in the sciences encourages research among its majors. Each year, students complete projects under the direction of faculty and these projects may serve as independent studies, Distinction Projects, or Honor's Theses. Student research is often published in professional journals and presented at off-campus meetings such as the Central Ohio Undergraduate Research Symposium, the Argonne Symposium for Undergraduate Research in Science and Mathematics, and the American Chemical Society.
Current areas of research opportunities in chemistry and biochemistry at Otterbein include pollutant interactions with soil, protein structure and function, synthesis and electrochemistry of metal cluster systems and polymers, molecular dynamics simulations, and synthesis of nonlinear optically active materials. Major equipment used for teaching and research includes high field NMR, Raman, fluorimeter, FT-IR, and tissue culture facilities.
