Solid Foundations for Green Chemistry Tyler Grant Funds Showcase Teaching Lab

No longer confined to noisy fume hoods, or limited to hazardous reactants, UO chemistry students are now able to work in the open and with each other, using chemical quantities that more closely resemble experiments done in industrial and research settings. Last fall, the Alice C. Tyler Perpetual Trust gave the Green Chemistry Program $300,000 to complete its showcase teaching laboratory. In “green chemistry,” students use less toxic materials that produce the same chemical reactions. Though green chemistry principles are occasionally taught in organic chemistry classrooms, green chemistry experiments did not make it into instructional laboratories until UO professors Jim Hutchison and Ken Doxsee developed a pilot laboratory course in green chemistry in 1998. This new curriculum is safer for students and the environment, creates a better atmosphere for learning, and makes the students feel better about what they’re doing. Lallie McKenzie, an undergraduate chemistry major, says the new approach not only eliminates the headaches she used to have after every lab session but also makes it easier to tell people what she’s studying. “Often the response you get is very negative when you tell people you’re a chemistry major, that we’re using all these chemicals and ruining the environment,” she says. “For me to say I’m a chemistry major with the green chemistry focus is a lot easier and makes me feel better about being a chemistry major.” “This grant will have a profound effect on our undergraduate chemistry curriculum,” says Hutchison. “The new instrumentation lab will allow all our students, even freshmen in 100 level classes, to use state-of-the-art equipment and get real data on their samples.” The new facility will also allow more students to be in the lab at a time, and that makes students and instructors happy. Space constraints will no longer require them to attend lab classes on nights and weekends. Doctoral candidate Marvin Warner says undergrads seem more relaxed and focused in the new lab. “I’ve noticed a definite increase in students’ overall enthusiasm,” says Warner. “It’s not just the standard organic lab they have to get through to be a pre-med major. They put a little more thought into what they’re doing.” “I like the trend that, as chemists, we’re trying to take responsibility for our role in the environment,” agrees graduate student Lauren Huffman. “We don’t just dump it down the sink and it’s magically gone. We’re taking responsibility for what we consume and produce.” Not only is teaching “green” safer and more efficient, but these students are developing marketable job skills while learning organic chemistry. Industry leaders, such as Nike and Intel, are already employing green chemists to analyze their companies’ manufacturing processes. “A strong environmental track record is becoming increasingly important to investors,” says Hutchison. “More and more companies are considering the ‘triple bottom line’ and are trying to position their companies on the axis of fiscal, social and environmental responsibility.” Hutchison predicts that the demand for green graduates will only continue to grow — and that UO students, the only students to have this kind of background, will be very competitive in this new job market. Using the new lab facility, the UO chemistry department will also promote green chemistry to students outside the grounds of the Eugene campus by sharing curriculum and laboratory methods with high school and college educators in other parts of the state and around the globe. “The University of Oregon’s green chemistry program has demonstrated international leadership,” says Dr. Dennis Hjeresen of the Green Chemistry Institute in Washington, D.C., which will match $100,000 of the Tyler grant with its own funds. “The lab will catalyze the development and dissemination of new educational materials to educators around the world.”

1245 University of Oregon • Eugene, OR • 97403-1245 (541) 346.3950 • FAX (541) 346.3282 • alumnidev@cas.uoregon.edu Copyright © 2002 University of Oregon Updated June 20, 2002