Renewal of NSF grant propels faculty and student research

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $230,000 grant to DePauw's Bridget Gourley, professor of chemistry and biochemistry and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. This grant allows Gourley to continue her collaborative research with Nancy Levinger, distinguished professor of chemistry at Colorado State University, in an ongoing project which had been funded by a previous NSF grant from August 2020 through July 2025.

"I feel incredibly lucky to have been successful in the current funding environment," said Gourley. "It is a high bar to get a renewal with NSF. We had to demonstrate that we were productive enough with the original award to merit continued funding and convince reviewers there were new ideas to explore."

The work of Gourley and Levinger will continue to focus on the study of self-assembled structures of molecules which serve as models to explore physical and chemical properties of solvents in confined structures. The discoveries from this research could provide fundamental insight into how confined solvents behave - an insight which could contribute to solutions in technologies ranging from drug discovery to the extraction of critical minerals and toxins from the environment.

Following on the heels of the initial 5-year grant, this latest NSF award will run from September 2025 through the end of August 2028. Not only will the $230,000 allow for the purchase of a dynamic light scattering instrument to aid in the research, it will also support multiple students each summer who will work with Gourley as well as the research team at Colorado State. This multi-institutional approach gives DePauw undergraduate students the opportunity to collaborate with others in the scientific community while making meaningful contributions to groundbreaking scientific work.

To learn more about the impact of summer research at DePauw - and the work of Gourley and her students - you can view this story from last year.