Nathan Bowling, assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP), received a Cottrell College Science Award from Research Corporation for his grant proposal, "Generation and Studies of Pyrazinyleneethynylenes: Controlling Oligomer Geometry via Transition Metal Coordination."

The $32,000 award with UWSP providing $9,000 in matching funds will support research efforts for Bowling and, in part, two UWSP student researchers in the summers of 2009 and 2010.

Their research focuses on designing molecules containing cavities that will accommodate metal ions of a certain size, much like a lock accommodates a key. In this case, however, the "keys" (metal ions) will change the properties and, therefore, function of the "locks" (molecules). Molecules not containing metal ions will be rather nonconductive, while those containing metal ions will likely be semi-conducting/conducting.

"These types of conductive organic molecules are interesting targets in the development of the next generation of electronic devices, such as solar cells and light-emitting diodes," said Bowling.

Bowling's campus laboratory was recently remodeled to facilitate his synthetics work. The tools necessary to characterize the new materials he makes reside in the Department of Chemistry.

Bowling received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Valparaiso University in Indiana. He earned a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and did post-doctoral work at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He began his tenure at UWSP in the fall of 2006. He and his wife, Juli, and their newborn son, Henry, reside in Polonia.

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