Project Purple

By providing students with fun hands-on exercises, we hope to replace feelings of apprehension about STEM fields with a sense of curiosity and wonder.

-Dr. Nicholas Boaz, associate professor of chemistry

During the spring semester, there was a hopeful, anticipatory feeling buzzing through a laboratory on the third floor of the Dr. Myron Wentz Science Center. Hovering over lab stations, small teams of Organic Chemistry II students waited excitedly for the results of their experiments to solve a real-world chemistry challenge: create a new synthesis for developing a rare purple dye that goes back to antiquity.

Coined “Project Purple,” the course’s lab component was designed by Dr. Nicholas Boaz, associate professor of chemistry, along with colleagues Dr. Jeffrey Bjorklund, professor of chemistry, and Dr. Orion Pearce, lecturer in chemistry. Julie Concepcion ’24, a chemistry major, also collaborated with faculty in designing the course. The goal was to help students connect something abstract — a chemical compound — to something concrete: a color.

Going back to the Bronze Age in the Mediterranean Basin, dye made with the compound known as Tyrian purple was associated with royalty and social status because it was rare. The dye was difficult to make, so it was produced only in small amounts.

In the Project Purple lab, students were “hired” to be process chemists — professionals whose job it is to perfect a chemical production process. They were tasked with a new compound for Tyrian purple that could be scaled for commercial production. They also were challenged to optimize their process to be environmentally conscious.

True to the College’s emphasis on interdisciplinary learning, at the end of the course, students created an oil painting using the purple dye they developed. The painting is now displayed in the Wentz Science Center.

Best of all, Project Purple offered a way to enjoy engaging with chemistry. Boaz said, “By providing students with fun handson exercises, we hope to replace feelings of apprehension about STEM fields with a sense of curiosity and wonder.”