Awards in Recent Years

Over the past decade, Calvin University's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has been awarded over $10.39 million in grants and awards to fund our rigorous year-round research programs. Faculty have developed and maintained research projects covering a wide scope of topics, impacting and affecting projects on local and national scales. More so, involvement in various projects have opened up opportunities for Chemistry and Biochemistry students to gain hands-on, interactive learning and training experiences that place them directly in fields (such as pharmaceutical, health care, and chemical engineering).

• Awarded in 2020 - $497,673
  • Empirical Bioscience – Awarded to Brendan Looyenga for Molecular Diagnostics Assay Development and Validation - $76,785
  • National Science Foundation – Awarded to Mark Muyskens for RUI: Photoacidity in Bioactive, Natural Coumarins - $220,888
  • National Science Foundation – Awarded to Douglas Vander Griend for RUI: In Situ Characterization of Competitively Balanced Supramolecular and Biomolecular Systems (CDS&E) - $200,000

• Awarded in 2019 - $72,880
  • Global Genes- Awarded to Amy Wilstermann, Rachel Baker for RARE Patient Impact Grant - $4,880
  • Empirical Bioscience – Awarded to Brendan Looyenga for Scientific Services - $68,000

• Awarded in 2018 - $1,157,129
  • National Science Foundation – Awarded to Carolyn Anderson, Herb Fynewever, V. Norman, M. Bolt, Arlene Hoogewerf for Building Foundations for Success in STEM - $999,814
  • Beckman, Arnold, and Mabel Foundation – Awarded to Douglas Vander Griend for BSP 2019 - $104,000
  • Empirical Bioscience – Awarded to Brendan Looyenga for Empirical Bioscience Contract - $45,315
  • Organic Syntheses – Awarded to Carolyn Anderson for Synthesis of Trisubstituted Indolizines - $8,000
• Awarded in 2017 - $259,731
  • National Science Foundation – Awarded to J. Adams, Mark Muyskens, Douglas Vander Griend, B. Haney, J. Van Horn for MRI: Acquisition of a Multidisciplinary Beowulf Cluster - $259,731
• Awarded in 2016 - $1,198,845
  • Calvin Center For Christian Scholarship: Awarded to Rachel Baker, Amy Wilstermann, and S. Nelesen for Building a Community of Scientists: The Development of A New Collaborative Project at Calvin University—$4,925

  • American Chemical Society: Awarded to Mark Muyskens for ACS Project SEED 2016 Summer 2 - $3,000

  • Spectrum Health: Awarded to Brendan Looyenga for A Potential Utility for GLUT1 Targeted Therapy in Osteosarcome - $6,500

  • Dreyfus, Camille, and Henry Foundation: Awarded to Roger DeKock for Senior Scientist Mentor Program-Electronic Structures of Atoms - $20,000

  • Walter Reed Army Institute of Research: Awarded to Michael Barbachyn for Identification of Novel Gyrase Inhibitors with Relevant Gram-Negative Activity - $615,702

  • National Science Foundation: Awarded to Carolyn Anderson for RUI: Synthesis of Highly Functionalized Heterocyclic Scaffolds - $299,718

  • National Science Foundation: Awarded to David Benson for RUI: Protein Tyrosine Oxidations to Maintain Cellular Redox State -  $249,000