Department of Chemistry at UMass Amherst

Cutting Edge Research and INNOVATIVE EDUCATION
$10 million in external funding
The most Distinguished Teaching Award winning faculty
of any department at UMass
Upcoming Events
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Jul13
Kithmie H MalagodaPathiranage
"Mechanism-driven approaches and novel constructs for high purity RNA synthesis"1:00 pmDissertation Defense -
Jul20
Fanjun Li
"Investigation of kinase conformational dynamics and analytes detection with protein nanopore"1:00 pmDissertation Defense
Chemistry Receives Four CNS Outstanding Achievement Awards!
Each year, the College of Natural Sciences honors its faculty, staff, and student leaders who have made important contributions to their discipline, department, college, and university by presenting them with the Outstanding Achievement Awards.
Recipients are nominated by colleagues within the college and chosen by committees. The CNS Outstanding Achievement Awards recognize excellence and honor members within CNS who have made important contributions to their discipline, department, college and university.
We are thrilled to have four members of our chemistry community recognized for their outstanding efforts!
Outstanding Advisor: Ruthanne Paradise, Senior Lecturer in Chemistry and Chief Undergraduate Advisor
Outstanding Staff: Rebecca David
Outstanding Research: Jianhan Chen, Professor in Chemistry and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Outstanding Service & Engagement: Lynmarie Thompson, Professor in Chemistry

Ethan French '23 Named a 2021 UMass Rising Researcher
Ethan French transferred to UMass Amherst in his sophomore year when all his classes were online and found a remote research position in a computational chemistry lab, a new area for him. He says he “fell more in love with chemistry as I was exposed to a part of it that I didn’t know existed.”
French works in the lab of Assistant Professor of Chemistry Zhou Lin, which focuses on the development and application of fragment-based quantum chemistry techniques. Lin praised French’s impressive progress. “He has a unique dual background in chemistry and programming, allowing him to appreciate problems in chemistry and to program theory into codes,” she says. “His projects push the frontier of quantum chemistry by accelerating existing approaches without compromising accuracy.” French’s current research involves the application of machine learning to chemistry. Most recently, he used machine learning to predict quantum mechanical properties of molecules. A time consuming process that he helped reduce from approximately 12 hours to about 90 seconds.
As a result of his work in Lin’s lab, French was the second author on a paper published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. Lin expects that his ongoing work will result in at least two more publications.
“There is always more to know,” he says. “Research has also given me a chance to focus on an area of chemistry that I can now see as being a part of my career.”


Department News
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Journal Dedicated to Emeritus Raymond Barnes
A virtual issue of the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry is dedicated to emeritus Prof. Raymond Barnes. -
Auerbach Publishes "Hot" Article Predicting Faster Formation of Nanoporous Material
First Ever "Atomic-level" Simulation of Accelerated Crystallization of Zeolites -
Thompson Elected AAAS Fellow
Lynmarie Thompson, chemistry professor, was elected as Fellow to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The AAAS fellowship, among the most prestigious honors in the scientific community, recognizes exceptional contributions to the progress of science. -
Sun Receives Paul Hatheway Terry Scholarship
Zhining (Jennings) Sun received Paul Hatheway Terry Scholarship in recognition of excellence in research. -
Lin Receives Scialog Award
Zhou Lin, assistant professor in chemistry, and her co-authors received the (“science + dialog") Scialog Award for their proposal to develop a new electrosynthetic route that reduces the emissions of two most significant greenhouse gases from waste management and treatment activities, carbon dioxide, and methane. -
Jianhan Chen Receives $2 Million NIH MIRA Grant
Jianhan Chen, a chemistry and biochemistry and molecular biology professor, has received a $2 million NIH grant to research the role of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) in biology and human disease.
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