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Department of Chemistry

Research Facilities

With state-of-the-art facilities, Penn State Chemistry offers an exciting, supportive environment to pursue research and innovation. Keep reading to learn more. 

View a complete list of facilities!

Chemistry Facilities

This group provides an array of repair and renovation services. Among the items that are accepted for repair: stir plates, shakers, balances, water chillers and miscellaneous test equipment.



The Maintenance Shop also handles laboratory and office renovations. They can do painting, carpentry and some electrical work. They install laboratory equipment and will remove old items that need to go to surplus.



The Maintenance Shop is also the first place to call for all building maintenance and janitorial related issues such as heating or air conditioning problems, no lights, power or other electrical problems, leaks, etc.



To reach the Maintenance Shop during normal business hours (Monday - Friday) call 867-2857.



Emergencies occurring after regular business hours should be reported directly to the OPP service desk at 865-4731

Supervisor

Rob Gavlock

Email: rag124@psu.edu

Location: 127 Chemistry Building

Phone: 814-867-2857

Contact Rob for General building issues and repairs as well as building and lab renovations

Staff

Tim Hillard

22 Pond Laboratory

Email: tdh14@psu.edu

(814) 865-7952

Michael Eğer

132 Chemistry Building

Email: mje11@psu.edu

(814) 867-2857

Staff Assistant: Shari Miller

Email: slt7@psu.edu

Location: 101 Chemistry Building

Phone: 814-865-2149

Contact Shari when Rob is unavailable for General building issues and repairs

The mission of the Research Instrumentation Facility is to provide support for both research and educational programs. We provide cost-effective and high quality services for design and fabrication of custom instrumentation and the maintenance and repair of equipment which is used throughout the  Penn State community.

Examples of custom design projects:

High voltage high speed switching

High frequency low noise amplifiers

Simple Spectrophotometer

Karl Fischer Titrator

Cyclic Voltammeter

Conductivity Meter

Optical communications

Examples of equipment repair:

UV/VIS spectrophotometers

FTIR spectrometers

NMR spectrometers

PCR machines

Bench top and floor model centrifuges (Sorvall, Eppendorf, etc.)

CO2 incubators, ovens, furnaces and environmental chambers

Shakers, water baths, stirrers and hot plates

Test equipment oscilloscopes, low and high voltage power supplies

Computer peripherals printers, monitors



****Job Requests now go through the iLab System (click here).

Staff

Bob Crable

121 Chemistry Building

Email: rmc@chem.psu.edu

(814) 865-0254

Jim Miller

121 Chemistry Building

Email: jlm@chem.psu.edu

(814) 865-2041

We no longer have glassblowing capabilities. We are currently seeking solutions to serve the PSU Scientific Community's glassblowing needs. When we have a process identified, we will update this website. Thank you for your patience, and we apologize for the inconvenience.    

The Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Facility at Penn State is located at the basement of the Chemistry Building. The primary mission of the Facility is to make NMR spectroscopy and Micro-Imaging available to students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty of the University and of the surrounding Central Pennsylvania community for the advancement of their research.

Learn more!

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Small molecule X-ray crystallography

Location: Room 8, Althouse Laboratory, neighboring the Chemistry building. 

The Department of Chemistry X-ray Crystallography Facility is part of an Integrated Macromolecular and Small Molecule X-ray Crystallography Facility operated jointly by the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Crystal growth, 3-D structure determination and data analysis of both macromolecular and small molecule samples can be performed at the facility.

Instrumentation: Rigaku Micro-Max 007 rotating anode (copper) generator equipped with Osmic Varimax monochromator, four-circle universal goniometer and HyPix Arc150 detector is used for data collection. Oxford cobra cryo-system is used for sample cooling down to 100K. CrysAlis software for data collection and data-reduction, and auto-chem for automatic crystal structure solution are available. SHELX and OLEX2 software suites are used for the structure refinement and generate publication material. 

Leica MZ7.5 10-80X stereomicroscope is available for inspection of sample prior to data collection. 

Sample submission: Samples must be properly labeled and brought to/submitted in room 8 Althouse laboratory

For more information, contact: Hemant Yennawar Ph.D.

Email: hpy1@psu.edu  Phone: 814 865 8383

University Facilities

EESLThe Energy and Environmental Sustainability Laboratories (EESL) are shared multi-user instrumentation facilities at Penn State that tie together world-class instrumentation and expertise in a broad array of analytical techniques covering materials in all phases.

Visit their website!

msc

We are passionate about education and collaborative problem solving. An interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers, the Materials Characterization Laboratory (MCL) is a fully-staffed, open access, analytical research facility at Penn State's Materials Research Institute charged with enabling research and educating the next generation of highly qualified researchers.

Our laboratories in the Millennium Science Complex are integrated with the Nanofabrication Laboratory and Materials Computation Center to maximize impact and efficiency. Additionally, MCL is a partner in the Materials Research Facilities Network (MRFN). Supported by the National Science Foundation, this network enhances our ability to support commercial, government, and academic researchers around the globe.

Learn more!

Metabolomics

Our primary goal is to identify and quantify the small (<1kDa) molecules present in plant and animal biofluids and tissue extracts, as identifying perturbations in the amounts of particular metabolites can offer insights into the underlying biological processes involved in their production.

Learn More!

nanofab

A hallmark of our facility is the “three laboratories-one integrated solution” concept. We provide open access to MRI facilities for fabrication at the nano- and micro-scale, in conjunction with materials and device characterization utilizing the most advanced techniques available, and a suite of computational modeling capabilities backed by faculty experts. With our three-lab solution, our staff scientists and engineers will enable users to transition fundamental research in nanomaterials to innovation-driven multicomponent integrated devices and system demonstration.

Read more!

proteomics

The Proteomics and Mass Spectrometry Core Facility offers highly sensitive and accurate mass spectrometry analysis, including identification and quantitation of proteins by liquid chromatography electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS-MS) or by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-TOF-MS).

Read More!

Crystallography

The X-Ray Crystallography Facility provides the necessary infrastructure and support for individual investigators to undertake single crystal X-ray structural studies. 

Director: Neela Yennawar

Learn more!

2d consortium

The 2DCC combines a vibrant in-house research effort focused on transformative advances in the synthesis and characterization of 2D chalcogenide layered materials with a robust external user program that provides access to expertise and state-of-the-art facilities. 

Learn more!

Key Personnel

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Phil Smith

Director, Metabolomics Core Facility; Senior Research Associate, Proteomics and Mass Spectrometry Core Facility

319 Huck Life Sciences 

University Park, PA 16802

pbs13@psu.edu

814-867-4641

Huck Affiliations

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Josh Stapleton

Materials Characterization Laboratory Director

Office: N-050C MSC

Phone: 1-814-863-2224

Email: jjs366@psu.edu

MRI Affiliations

Materials Characterization Laboratory

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Neela Yennawar

Director, X-Ray Crystallography and Automated Biological Calorimetry Core Facilities

 

0088 Althouse Lab 

University Park, PA 16802

nhy1@psu.edu

814-863-9387

Research Summary

Biological calorimetry, protein characterization, molecular modeling, X-ray crystallography, and small-angle X-ray scattering.

Huck Affiliations