About The Department


About The Department

The Chemistry Department at Alma College is housed within the Ronald O. Kapp Science Laboratory Center. The Department was constructed in 1990 and contains well-equipped laboratories arranged in suites with adjacent instrumentation labs. Click here for a photographic tour of the department.

The Alma College Chemistry Department consists of 6 faculty members, 2 support staff, and 150 - 200 undergraduate students (on average), many of whom are involved in research projects with our faculty members.

Our students benefit from an education within the Chemistry Department by developing a fundamental understanding of chemistry, with the emphasis on new structural, analytical, synthetic and theoretical techniques applicable in both academic and industrial settings.

Research and Training Environment

The Department has a wide range of instrumentation, including high performance liquid chromatography, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, atomic absorbance spectrometry and multinuclear superconducting nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometry. More than 40 computers are used to acquire and analyze data for lab work and research.

Research students become well versed in project-specific skills, general scientific awareness, and transferable skills such as written and oral communication as well as computer-related skills.

 

Alma College trustees have adopted a master plan that provides a direction and set of priorities for the development of the physical campus. Key components include an emphasis on advanced and interactive learning, prioritized building renovations, housing initiatives that accommodate enrollment growth, a reconfiguration of parking lots and green spaces, and campus growth plans linked to the Alma downtown business environment.

 

Faculty Profile

Dr. Jeff Turk
Departments: Chemistry

Dr. Jeff Turk’s parents sealed his fate when they bought him a chemistry set at age nine. The last three weeks of his high school AP Chemistry class sparked his interest in organic chemistry.

The assistant professor of chemistry joined Alma faculty in 2006 after earning his undergraduate degree at Cleveland State University and his masters and doctoral degrees at the University of Cincinnati.