Karen Castle, Chemistry

Professor Karen Castle of Chemistry discusses her research and gives a quick tour of her lab.

Discovering Lasers

Eric Tillman, Chemistry

What got you interested in your research? 

Professor Tillman conducts research on mechanistic polymers. As a graduate student Professor Tillman joined a research group where they made polymers and they tried to convert these polymers into cyclic polymers. They had the challenge of designing, understanding, and then using these reactions to build something specific. This research group interested him in polymer research, and since Professor Tillman really liked organic chemistry. According to Professor Tillman, "Polymer chemistry is just really applied organic chemistry, and I really liked the process of learning organic chemistry and then applying what I learned in organic chemistry to make polymers." In his research group at Bucknell, he tries to use organic chemistry reactions to link polymer chains together.