Austin Peay Chemistry Department

05/09/2026

Today we celebrate our graduates! 🎓

To our chemistry majors: thank you for the countless hours in the lab, the perseverance through challenging courses, the curiosity you brought to every experiment, and the community you helped build within our department. We are so proud of you, and we will truly miss you! 👩‍🔬🧑‍🔬❤️

And to the students who may have only spent a semester or two with us in chemistry classes: we are proud of you too. Thank you for the moments you shared with our department and for the impact you made while you were here! 👏

Congratulations to all of today’s graduates. We cannot wait to see where life takes you next! ❤️

05/06/2026

At our recent department awards banquet, one of our students, Eric (an XEM officer), surprised Dr. Matthews with a brand-new honor: “The Nicest Guy Award.”

Moments like this are what make our department special. Our students continually inspire us—not just with their hard work, but with their thoughtfulness and sense of community.

Dr. Matthews is an invaluable part of our department, and this recognition couldn’t be more fitting. We have a feeling this award will be proudly framed and displayed for years to come next to the new NMR!

Congratulations, Dr. Matthews—and thank you to our amazing students for making this such a memorable moment.

05/01/2026

Our second lab tour yesterday was at Aegis Sciences Corporation. This is a tour we have been able to take part in year after year. The main change each year is the amount of automation, instrumentation, and alumni! We LOVED seeing our alumni yesterday. Stacey did an amazing job allowing our students to speak candidly about future jobs, and it was great to see Tony and Andrew as well! Thank you so much for hosting our group of Organic and Instrumental students!!

05/01/2026

A group of Instrumental and Organic students had the privilege of touring Tennessee Department of Agriculture yesterday! Our first tour was led by one of our fabulous alumna, Page, and we loved seeing her! The amount of diversity in research and testing was wonderful for our students to see. There were so many applications in the world of chemistry, biology, and metrology that our students connected to immediately. Thank you so much for hosting us!

04/27/2026

Are you passionate about teaching Introductory and General Chemistry? If so, please consider applying for our visiting instructor position starting August 2026!

Link to apply in comments.

04/27/2026

We are so proud of all the hard work our research students perform every week. Congratulations to Georgia, who presented an oral seminar, and to our poster presenters: Holly, Logan, Lucas, James, and David! Other chemistry students presented their research performed with other departments, and we are just as proud of them. Once a chemist, always a chemist!!

04/23/2026

Bailey is the absolute BEST!! We are so thankful that Bailey is our Adminstrative Assistant! 😍

Happy Administrative Professionals Day to our incredible CoSTEM team!

Mary Biggers, Sherry Bagwell, Crystal Erdmenger, Jamie Gaither, Josie Harbert, Bailey Harrison, Jess Langston, and Patty Mason—you're the heroes who keep our college running smoothly every single day.

Please join us in thanking them for all they do!

04/22/2026

Congratulations to Dr. Hannah Richards who just became Vanderbilt's first Schmidt Science Fellow! She has worked so hard since graduating from APSU only four years ago, and we are so proud to count her among our AMAZING alumni! This fellowship is one of the world's most prestigious post-doctoral fellowships, and we look forward to hearing about all the results of her research into fungal infections affecting leatherback sea turtle populations! 🐢

04/22/2026

We are so proud of all our students! Each of the students pictured in these photos is a vital part of our Department. They work hard, sacrifice their time and energy for others, and are simply fantastic students.

Congratulations to each of our Department Award Winners!!

Not pictured: Holly Garcia and Emeline Parker 📸

04/20/2026

A group of APSU students helped Dr. Pathiranage and Dr. Chamness represent the Nashville Local Section of the American Chemical Society at an Earth Day Event in Nashville this past weekend. We LOVED seeing our students working with other chemistry students from TTU, MTSU, and Vanderbilt to engage our community in the subject we are all so passionate about!

As Dr. P said, "Chemistry is more than just a subject- it is a family. We share a common language, a passion, and a culture that brings us together, and Saturday was a perfect reflection of that spirit. [APSU students'] enthusiasm and willingness to engage with the community made a lasting impact."

We are so proud of all the work our Chemistry Family is doing in our community!