Last Thursday, Dr. Morgan’s Analytical Chemistry students took a tour of Mississippi State University’s chemistry labs where they saw state research labs, undergraduate labs, and professors’ research labs.

The tour began by walking through the double doors of the Hand Lab, where on the ground floor students were able to overlook the research that Mississippi State conducts for multiple state departments, like the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.

Haydn Schroader, MSMS senior and member of the Analytical chemistry class, was not aware of all the research that took place at the university.“I found it very interesting that MSU tests for chemicals in all the farming feed, soil, and hay; that’s pretty cool,” Schroader said.

Gallery • 2 Photos

Mr. Darren Nakumara showing students the workings of a flame chromotographer.

Ms. Christina Childers, Associate Director of Environmental and Chemical Regulation at Mississippi State, explained the intricacies of the beeping, buzzing and whirring machines that were scattered throughout the labs on the ground floor.

Most of them, Childers explained, were meant to examine samples provided to the lab to ensure that no toxins were present in soil or livestock, or to ensure that the advertised values of nutrients present in a product are accurate. Childers recounted their lab incinerating bat hairs to examine them for mercury.

After touring the ground floor, the Analytical students were taken upstairs to see what Hand Lab had to offer for undergraduate students at MSU.

Students were given an upstairs tour by 2015 MSMS alumna Flannery Voges-Haupt, who is now an undergraduate chemistry student at MSU. Voges-Haupt detailed the inner workings of the student-led research at MSU.

Voges-Haupt explained that MSU is a university in which undergraduate students like herself are allowed to perform research alongside professors, which is a rare opportunity in larger universities like MSU.

Voges-Haupt led students through the classrooms and student labs of Hand lab and closed the tour by showing the students one of the most advanced nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy machines in the southeast United States.

The tour was a hit for students like Schroader, who is considering going into chemistry as a major in college.

“I have always liked chemistry, and I find it really interesting that they conduct so much research and testing” Schroader said.

After the conclusion of the tour, students were taken to the MAFES sales store to examine the product of organic chemistry with some delicious university-made ice cream.