Gaining Confidence through Summer Chemistry Research
What do undergraduate researchers do? How do you get started with research as a college student?
Meet Nicholas Mixon ’26, a chemistry major, who felt confident and capable after a summer of undergraduate lab research, aiming to make molecules that can react with toxic metabolites and byproducts so they can to glow under UV light.
The Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research at UNH offers a variety of funding opportunities, so students can get paid to conduct research.
What is your research about?
We aim to make molecules that can react with toxic metabolites and byproducts so that they glow under UV light. We then capture this with fluorescence microscopy and the sensors act as little lanterns that we believe will show contours and how they change under hazardous conditions.
What problem does your research address?
My research seeks to create a molecular toolkit so that we can investigate and characterize cell death pathways. Our fluorescent biosensors aim to acquire multiplex imaging of a cell's lipid membranes during progressive degradation events.
What was the most exciting part about your research?
Undergraduate research has given me proof that I am capable. I now feel confident in my ability to work diligently in any future research setting, be it in academia or industry.
Why did you want to conduct undergraduate research?
Deb Audino, my biochemistry professor at Great Bay Community College, got me interested in conducting research. She recommended I do a program called the National Science Foundation EstabÂlished Program to StimÂuÂlate ComÂpetÂiÂtive Research (NSF EPSCoR). I came to learn that research was about taking small, sure steps that others or even myself could retrace to continue their own work. It became the most meaningful thing that I ever discovered. I want to leave the world better than I found it, and research is my way of doing that. When I got to UNH, I wasted no time getting to know my professors. I got into a lab in my sophomore year and, with the help of the McNair Scholars Program and the Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research, I've been able to pursue my life's goal of leaving the world a little bit different and a little bit better.
What did you learn from your research experience?
I have gained confidence in my laboratory responsibilities and in deadline management. I presented my research to my peers, really dug into the mechanism of the chemistry, and had the chance to work with my brilliant mentors. With all that I have learned this summer, I feel confident that I could tackle any synthetic problem that comes my way in grad school and beyond.
What was the most memorable part of your research experience?
In chemistry, when you get a really pure compound, sometimes you can tell because it crystallizes. When it happens, I get goosebumps. This summer was my summer of building confidence in my lab skills that I have been acquiring in my time here at UNH. One of those skills is setting up a chromatography column. You have to pour this fine silica powder into a long glass tube with a little dispenser on the end for gravity to pull liquid down and out. You drop your raw reaction mixture in and each different molecule moves through at different rates. At the other other end, you collect test tubes with fractions of what comes out. This helps us as chemists purify our products so we can carry out further reactions with what we just made.
This summer, my grad peer mentor was away for a week and I wanted to make him proud when he came back by making some new compound. Once I made the compound, it was time for the dreaded column. I was nervous, but ready. After three days of process and one day of purification, it all came down to one moment. I twisted the pressure valve, the pump made a gargling noise, signaling me to stop turning the knob, and what was left in my vial was a smidgen of thick yellow oil and bumps. Then, one third of the vial was engulfed in this fluffy cotton candy-like pack of sparkling off-white crystals. That moment made me feel bliss as a synthetic organic chemist.