Chemistry & Physics Resources

The Chemistry and Physics programs are located in Herty Hall and Beeson Hall, respectively. The buildings house several innovative teaching spaces including a 64-seat studio laboratory, and faculty laboratory spaces for carrying out undergraduate research. Courses and research are supported by a wide variety of chemical and physical instrumentation.

Student Research Opportunities

We have a long history of scientific research conducted by students. Faculty members lead active research groups in which students acquire introductory to intermediate experimental and computational skills. Our students have contributed work that has appeared in peer-reviewed journals and at scientific conferences. A certain number of research credit hours are required for graduation (CHEM 4999 and PHYS 4999). In addition, the top students of each class are encouraged to apply for the Chemistry and Physics Scholars Program.

Chemistry and Physics Scholars Program
Each year, applicants are selected to receive a yearly research stipend. These funds are renewable annually, and serve to support research with a professor in an area of chemistry, physics, or astronomy. For example, the funds can be used to purchase research equipment, or to reimburse conference travel. The application and selection process are part of the First-Year Academic experience, but it is open to all class levels. Eligibility and guidelines for the scholarship are outlined in the documents below:
Chemistry: Scholars Conditions and Contract
Physics/Astronomy: Conditions and Application

Other Scholarships
The Chemistry and Physics Programs also award several scholarships annually to our best majors. These include the Jesse Trawick Scholarship and Sarah and Abraham Marks Scholarship. Students may apply for these through MyGCSU. Check with the Financial Aid department for details on university scholarships and the Honors College for information about external scholarships.

Laboratory Equipment

Students and faculty have direct access to an array of computers and instruments which gives students the exposure they need to be successful. Faculty members have private research spaces equipped with fume hoods and ChemTop benches. With the May 2017 renovation of Beeson Hall, the Physics Program gained a state-of-the-art machine shop with a CNC mill. A new, high-definition and fully digital planetarium complements one of the largest research-grade telescopes in the southeast.

New JNM-ECZL400S: 400 MHz, 9.4 T NMR Spectrometer

The department has a new JNM-ECZL400S: 400 MHz, 9.4 T NMR Spectrometer. The ECZ Luminous (JNM-ECZL series) is an FT NMR spectrometer equipped with state-of-the-art digital and high frequency technology. The Smart Transceiver System, a high-speed, high-precision digital high-frequency control circuit, enables further miniaturization and high reliability of the spectrometer. It is capable of high-field and solid-state NMR measurements while maintaining the size of a conventional low-field solution NMR system.

With the new Multi Frequency Drive System one can run multi-nuclei pulse trains on a single physical RF channel. This allows to run modern complex NMR experiments on a spectrometer with very simple configuration. 

Chemistry Laboratory Equipment

• Jasco J1100 - photo
• Labnet Refrigerated Microcentrifuge - photo
• Vanta™ Handheld XRF Analyzer - photo
• Benchmark Thermal Cycler - photo
• Ethos UP High Performance Microwave Digestion - photo
• IRAffinity-1S FTIR - photo
• Jasco FP-8550 Spectrofluorometer - photo
• UV-2600i UV-VIS Spectrophotometer - photo
• Agilent 8860GC-5977B MSD - photo
• MacroRam Raman Spectrometer - photo
• Track Stand Stereo Microscope - photo
• Cary Eclipse - photo
• Cary Series UV-VIS - photo
• NanoDrop - photo
• TA Discovery - photo
• MonoWave 50 - photo
• Varian 60-MHz FTNMR Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer - photo
• SPD-20A Shimadzu High Performance Liquid Chromatograph - photo
• Perkin Elmer Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy AA  - photo
• Rotary Evaporators Rotary-Vap - ISC photo,  Herty Hall photo
• Sorvall ST-16 Centrifuge - photo
• Dual processor PowerMac G5s with SCM's Density Functional Software and AutoDock 4 installed
• Mac Pro six-core 16 GB computer (plus 10 TB of data/backup) - photo

Physics Laboratory Equipment

• Voltera V-One Desktop PCB Printer - photo
• Compact Research Coater System - photo
• 3D Printers - photo 1, photo 2
• 24-seat HD Digitalis Planetarium - photo
• 24-inch Planewave Telescope inside a 16-ft dome - photo
• Lincoln Electric 275 Precision Tig Welder, Victor Technologies Cutmaster 102 (Plasma Cutter), & Miller Millermatic 251 Mig Welder - photo
• Welding Table - photo
• Sand Blaster - photo
• CNC Milling Machine PCNC 1100 Series 3 Personal CNC (Tormach) - photo
• Slant Pro CNC Lathe Machine (Tormach) - photo
• PCNC 440 Personal CNC (Tormach) - photo
• Colchester 600 Lathe - photo
• Grizzly Mill with Stand - photo
• G0768 Grizzly Lathe - photo
• Drill Press - photo
• Milling Machine Powermatic 8291 - photo
• Matsusada High Voltage Power Supply - photo
• Oerlikon Turbo Pump - photo

The Science Education Center

The Science Education Center at Georgia College & State University is dedicated to excellence in science teaching and learning. The Center is housed in the College of Arts and Sciences. Through courses, workshops, camps, scientific competitions, partnerships, curricular and other educational activities, the Center acts as a vehicle for enhancing science education for students from P-16.

OASIS

The Oconee Area Strategic Initiative in Science (OASIS) is a consortium chartered in 2001 to address challenges and solutions in K-16 science in the seven partner counties (Baldwin, Hancock, Jasper, Johnson, Putnam, Washington, and Wilkinson). OASIS involves K-12 teachers, business representatives, Oconee RESA consultants, and Georgia College faculty and students.

Observatory

The Pohl Observatory at GCSU hosts a 24-inch Corrected Dall-Kirkham (CDK 24) Astrograph telescope optical tube assembly manufactured by Planewave Instruments with focal ratio of f/6.8. The CDK 24 is designed to have no field curvature, off-axis coma, or astigmatism over a 70mm image. It sits on a Mathis Instruments Fork Mount MI-1000. The entire assembly is installed on the 4th story of Herty Hall atop of an isolated pier in a 16 ft Ash Dome.

GCSU will open the observatory for public observing at regularly scheduled events and special astronomical events. All observing times are subject to weather conditions. In the event of rain or cloudy skies, the observatory session will be canceled and a presentation will be offered in the Planetarium located in the Natural History Museum (1st Floor of Herty):

Planetarium

GCSU is proud to present the GCSU planetarium, where students can view digital simulations of the sky in an immersive 20 ft diameter dome view with guides, labels, and motion.  The planetarium also has the ability to display full dome show content. This Digitarium Epsilon projector has all the abilities of a computer vs. the slide projector views of the past.

The planetarium has been in use as part of the GCSU astronomy labs since 2008. It is also been a common part of campus outreach with visits from Kid's University, Boys and Girls club, PRELIMS, GNETS, and SEE programs. Local teacher preparation programs and summer workshops have also had the chance to experience the educational opportunities of this system.

The planetarium has been funded through the Department of Chemistry, Physics and Astronomy, the GCSU Student Technology Fees Committee, and the generosity of the Grassman Foundation.  

Planetarium shows for the public occur about once a month during the academic year in conjunction with the public observatory nights.