This summer, Steven Lopez, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology, will launch a research collaboration program for community college students throughout Massachusetts who might otherwise not have opportunities to participate in lab work.

The six-week program, which begins May 30, will be funded in part by the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, an accolade Lopez recently received for his outstanding accomplishments as an early-career chemistry professor and researcher.

Lopez decided to start the summer program in order to get community college students involved in computational chemistry research, a subject that isn’t taught at community colleges in Massachusetts, Lopez says.

Because the research in Lopez’s lab is purely computational—in other words, there are no test tubes or Bunsen burners—students only need access to a computer in order to complete their work. “The Summer Research Experiences are pandemic-proof because the research can be done from anywhere with an internet connection,” he says. This also makes the work accessible to community college students everywhere.

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Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University.