Trine student presents research at Butler URC

INDIANAPOLIS — A Trine University student presented her senior chemistry research at this year’s Butler Undergraduate Research Conference (URC), held April 11 on the Butler University campus.

Ha My Le, a chemistry major from Houston, Texas, presented her research poster on “Catalytic Oxidation of an Aldehyde.”

Her research showed that the vanadium complex can effectively catalyze the oxidation of various aldehydes (a class of organic compounds) to esters (organic compounds derived from an acid) at different rates.

In addition to Le, Trine University students Aliciajoy Proxmire, a biochemistry major from Hudson, Indiana, and Makenzie Amich, a forensic science major from Thorntown, Indiana, attended the conference, along with faculty members Steve Dulaney, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry, Tony Layson, Ph.D., professor of chemistry, and David Quist, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry.

Held since 1988, the Butler URC allows undergraduate students from a wide variety of disciplines and universities to present their research. The event, one of the largest interdisciplinary undergraduate research conferences in the country, included talks in the morning sessions and poster presentations in the afternoon session.