BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Several Illinois Wesleyan University students will have the chance to conduct advanced summer research through a grant secured by IWU’s Professor of Chemistry Ram Mohan.
Mohan, who holds the Earl H. and Marian A. Beling Professorship in the Natural Sciences at Illinois Wesleyan, has been awarded a grant from the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Petroleum Research Fund for his efforts to study applications of iron(III) compounds as catalysts in organic synthesis. The fund, which supports fundamental research directly related to petroleum or fossil fuels at nonprofit institutions, rewards innovative research and advanced scientific education with the hopes of aiding in significantly increasing the world’s energy options.
The ACS grant will support two student researchers working under Mohan for the summers of 2012, 2013 and 2014. The funds will also help with his group’s travel to national meetings. The students will be applying iron(III) p-toluenesulfonate hexahydrate as a catalyst in five classes of organic transformations.