The third Biennial Schaap Chemistry Symposium at Hope College will feature a poster session on Friday, July 14, highlighting original research by 60 students from Hope and more than a dozen research universities from around the country.
The posters will be on display on Friday, July 14, from 9:20 a.m. to 11:20 a.m. in the ballroom of the college’s Haworth Hotel. The public is invited to the poster session, and admission is free.
The two-day symposium begins 10 a.m. Thursday, July 13, and concludes Friday afternoon. In addition to the poster session, the event will feature technical and professional development keynote addresses by Dr. Jen Heemstra, chair of the Chemistry Department at Washington University in St. Louis; short research talks by students and scientists from the participating institutions; and panel sessions on topics including graduate school in chemistry, industrial careers in chemistry and faculty careers at undergraduate institutions. Other than the poster session, the symposium is by invitation only and required prior registration, which is now closed.
The college’s Biennial Schaap Chemistry Symposium debuted in 2017, with MIT Professor and Hope College alumna Dr. Sylvia Ceyer as the keynote speaker and is held during alternating summers. It continued in 2019, but was on hiatus in 2021 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to faculty and students from Hope, this year’s two-day event will include participants from throughout the Midwest and as far away as Massachusetts, Montana, North Carolina and Texas; from several local chemical companies and Holland’s Michigan State University Bioeconomy Institute; and alumni and other friends of the college’s Department of Chemistry.
The symposium is made possible through an endowment gift to the college’s Department of Chemistry by the A. Paul & Carol C. Schaap Foundation to enhance the department’s already strong year-round program of undergraduate student/faculty collaborative research. Dr. A. Paul Schaap is a 1967 graduate of Hope’s chemistry department; a retired professor of chemistry at Wayne State University; the founder of Lumigen Inc.; an emeritus member of the Hope College Board of Trustees; and a long-time benefactor of both Hope and the college’s Department of Chemistry.
The 2025 Schaap Chemistry Symposium, to be held July 10-11, 2025, will feature keynote lectures by Dr. Malika Jeffries-EL, professor and associate dean at Boston University. Contact Hope faculty members Dr. Natalia Gonzalez-Pech, assistant professor of chemistry, or Dr. Jason Gillmore, professor of chemistry, for more information or an invitation.
The Haworth Hotel is located at 225 College Ave., between Ninth and 10th streets. More information about the symposium can be found online at hope.edu/schaapchemistrysymposium