BSc (and MSc) level research

The practice of undergraduate research (UR) arguably began in earnest at MIT in 1969 with the UROP program, whereby all undergraduates were offered the opportunity to participate in faculty-led forefront research. Today, UR is standard at all American universities. The level of ambition understandably varies: at top schools, virtually all chemistry undergrads participate in multiple semesters of fairly intensive research, often ending up with one or more publications by the time they graduate.

UiT's inorganic and materials chemistry group has been a pioneer in UR this side of the pond, starting in the mid-1990s. Some 50 or so bachelor and master degree students, ERASMUS students and exchange students from further afield, have cut their teeth on real-life research in our laboratory. These experiences go considerably beyond a standard bachelor thesis, not only exposing the student to half a dozen experimental techniques, but also allowing them to make and take pride in a contribution at the scientific forefront (see below for a list of >30 scientific articles coauthored by BSc and MSc researchers in our laboratory). The benefits of such experiences are too numerous to list here: they have been called the secret sauce that turns an undergraduate education from middling to exceptional.

Excitingly, UR is emerging as a key tool for furthering diversity and inclusion. Women, minorities, LGBTQ+, disabled, and neurodivergent students benefit particularly from the extensive mentoring they receive in the course of their project.

UR is resource-demanding and most universities are simply not equipped to offer genuine research experiences to undergraduates. Happily, at UiT's inorganic and materials chemistry laboratory, we do have the infrastructure and enthusiastic mentors to offer a world-class undergraduate research experience. Come and check us out!

Journal cover of paper with contributions by UiT student "lektor" student Martin Johansen and chemistry student Stian Martinsen

UiT's inorganic and materials chemistry research papers coauthored with bachelor and master students

(The names of the bachelor and master level researchers are indicated below in bold.)

Vangberg, T.; Ghosh, A. Monodeprotonated free base porphyrin. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B 1997, 101, 496-1497.

Ghosh, A.; Gonzalez, E.; Vangberg, T. Theoretical studies of low-spin six-coordinate iron (III) porphyrins relevant to cytochromes b: variable electronic configurations, ligand noninnocence, and macrocycle ruffling. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B 1999, 103, 1363-1367.

Ghosh, A.; Gonzalez, E. Theoretical studies on high‐valent manganese porphyrins: Toward a deeper understanding of the energetics, electron distributions, and structural features of the reactive intermediates of enzymatic and synthetic manganese‐catalyzed oxidative processes. Israel Journal of Chemistry 2000, 40, 1-8.

Ghosh, A.; Wondimagegn, T.; Gonzalez, E.; Halvorsen, I. Valence tautomerism and macrocycle ruffling in nickel (III) porphyrins. Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry 2000, 78, 79-82.

Ghosh, A.; Vangberg, T.; Gonzalez, E.; Taylor, P. Molecular structures and electron distributions of higher‐valent iron and manganese porphyrins. Density functional theory calculations and some preliminary open‐shell coupled‐cluster results. Journal of Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines 2001, 5, 345-356.

Dey, A.; Ghosh, A. “True” iron (V) and iron (VI) porphyrins: A first theoretical exploration. Journal of the American Chemical Society 2002, 124, 3206-3207.

Tangen, E.; Ghosh, A. Electronic structure of high-valent transition metal corrolazine complexes. The young and innocent? Journal of the American Chemical Society 2002, 124, 8117-8121.

Vangberg, T.; Lie, R.; Ghosh, A. Symmetry-breaking phenomena in metalloporphyrin π-cation radicals. Journal of the American Chemical Society 2002, 124, 8122-8130.

Steene, E.; Dey, A.; Ghosh, A. β-Octafluorocorroles. Journal of the American Chemical Society 2003, 125, 16300-16309.

Ghosh, A.; Tangen, E.; Gonzalez, E.; Que Jr, L. Models of High‐Valent Intermediates of Non‐Heme Diiron AlkaneMonooxygenases: Electronic Structure of a Bis(μ‐oxo)diron (iv) Complex with Locally Low‐Spin Metal Centers. Angewandte Chemie 2004, 116, 852-856.

van Oort, B.; Tangen, E.; Ghosh, A. Electronic Structure of Transition Metal− Isocorrole Complexes: A First Quantum Chemical Study. European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry 2004, 2442-2445.

Tangen, E.; Conradie, J.; Svadberg, A.; Ghosh, A. Understanding the unexpected linearity of the trans-{Mn(NO) 2} 8 unit in a phthalocyanine complex: some thoughts on dinitrosylheme intermediates in biology. Journal of inorganic biochemistry 2005, 99, 55-59.

Tangen, E.; Ghosh, A. Electronic structure of cis-Mo(P)(NO)₂, where P is a porphyrin: An organometallic perspective of metalloporphyrin–NO complexes. Journal of inorganic biochemistry 2005, 99, 959-962.

Ghosh, A.; Wasbotten, I. H.; Davis, W.; Swarts, J. C. Norcorrole and dihydronorcorrole: A predictive quantum chemical study. Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2005, 4479-4485.

Tangen, E.; Svadberg, A.; Ghosh, A. Toward modeling H-NOX domains: A DFT study of heme-NO complexes as hydrogen bond acceptors. Inorganic chemistry 2005, 44, 7802-7805.

Conradie, M. M.; Conradie, J.; Ghosh, A. A DFT overview of high-valent iron, cobalt and nickel tetraamidomacrocyclic ligand (TAML) complexes: The end of innocence? Journal of inorganic biochemistry 2006, 100, 620-626.

Chemistry undergrad Einar Jonsson worked on ReO and Au corroles with us in 2020-2021.

Johansen, I., Norheim, H.K., Larsen, S., Alemayehu, A.B., Conradie, J. and Ghosh, A., 2011. Substituent effects on metallocorrole spectra: insights from chromium-oxo and molybdenum-oxo triarylcorroles. Journal of Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines, 15(11n12), pp.1335-1344.

Berg, S. and Ghosh, A., 2011. Arrow Pushing: A Rational, Participatory Approach To Teaching Descriptive Inorganic Chemistry. Journal of Chemical Education, 88(12), pp.1663-1666.

Berg, S. and Ghosh, A., 2013. Six impossible mechanisms before breakfast: Arrow pushing as an instructional device in inorganic chemistry. Journal of Chemical Education, 90(11), pp.1446-1451.

Albrett, A.M., Thomas, K.E., Maslek, S., Młodzianowska, A., Conradie, J., Beavers, C.M., Ghosh, A. and Brothers, P.J., 2014. Mono-and diboron corroles: factors controlling stoichiometry and hydrolytic reactivity. Inorganic Chemistry, 53(11), pp.5486-5493.

Conradie, J., Berg, S. and Ghosh, A., 2015. Mechanisms of Oxygen Atom Transfer between Main‐Group Elements. European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, 2015(24), pp.4138-4144.

Vazquez-Lima, H., Norheim, H.K., Einrem, R.F. and Ghosh, A., 2015. Cryptic noninnocence: FeNO corroles in a new light. Dalton Transactions, 44(22), pp.10146-10151.

Geology undergrad Rune Einrem (2015) was the first to synthesize technetium-99 corroles.

Einrem, R.F., Braband, H., Fox, T., Vazquez‐Lima, H., Alberto, R. and Ghosh, A. Synthesis and molecular structure of ⁹⁹Tc Corroles. Chem. Eur. J. 2016, 22, 18747-18751.

Einrem, R.F., Gagnon, K.J., Alemayehu, A.B. and Ghosh, A., 2016. Metal–Ligand Misfits: Facile Access to Rhenium–Oxo Corroles by Oxidative Metalation. Chem. Eur. J. 2016, 22, 517-520.

Capar, J., Zonneveld, J., Berg, S., Isaksson, J., Gagnon, K.J., Thomas, K.E. and Ghosh, A. Demetalation of Copper undecaarylcorroles: molecular structures of a free-base undecaarylisocorrole and a gold undecaarylcorrole. J. Inorg. Biochem. 2016, 162, 146-153.

Norheim, H.K., Schneider, C., Gagnon, K.J. and Ghosh, A. One‐Pot Synthesis of a bis‐Pocket Corrole through a 14‐fold Bromination Reaction. ChemistryOpen 2017, 6, 221-225.

Ganguly, S., Renz, D., Giles, L.J., Gagnon, K.J., McCormick, L.J., Conradie, J., Sarangi, R. and Ghosh, A. Cobalt-and rhodium-corrole-triphenylphosphine complexes revisited: The question of a noninnocent corrole. Inorg. Chem. 2017, 56, 14788-14800.

Einrem, R.F., Jonsson, E.T., Teat, S.J., Settineri, N.S., Alemayehu, A.B. and Ghosh, A. Regioselective formylation of rhenium-oxo and gold corroles: substituent effects on optical spectra and redox potentials. RSC Adv. 2021, 11, 34086-34094.

Vazquez-Lima, H., Conradie, J., Johansen, M.A., Martinsen, S.R., Alemayehu, A.B. and Ghosh, A. Heavy-element–ligand covalence: ligand noninnocence in molybdenum and tungsten Viking-helmet Corroles. Dalton Trans. 2021, 50, 12843-12849.

Larsen, S.; Pérez, B. C. L.; Ghosh, A. Calixcorrole. Journal of Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines 2023, 27, 1263-1269.

Johannesen, K. E.; Johansen, M. A. L.; Einrem, R. F.; McCormick-McPherson, L. J.; Alemayehu, A. B.; Borisov, S. M.; Ghosh, A. Influence of Fluorinated Substituents on the Near-Infrared Phosphorescence of 5d Metallocorroles. ACS Org. Inorg. Au 2023, 3, 241–245.

Johansen, M. A. L.; Ghosh, A. The Curious Chemistry of Carbones. Nature Chemistry. 2023, 15, 1042-1042.