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Dr. Juan Duchimaza Heredia, Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Emmanuel, was awarded a $250,000 grant from the NSF over the next two years for his research project, which uses computer simulations to investigate why carbon dots fluoresce.
Under the NSF program ‘Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences’ (LEAPS-MPS), the project will create research positions for Emmanuel College students, establish partnerships with other computational chemists in Boston to foster a graduate-level research experience and get involved with high school educators in the area as well.
“It felt surreal,” Dr. Duchimaza Heredia said about receiving the grant. "It’s validating to think that my work is impressive to people beyond me.”
Carbon dots, which are specific chains of carbon that fluoresce and glow in multiple colors, are useful in applications of drug delivery, biosensing and imaging. Dr. Duchimaza Heredia is a computational chemist – meaning he simulates and develops models of chemical processes through computers – and by using those simulations, he is able to find out more about carbon dots that isn't easy to determine by facilitating chemical reactions.
This grant is the Emmanuel Chemistry and Physics Department’s sixth major award from the NSF, according to Dr. Aren Gerdon, Professor of Chemistry and Chair of the department.
“What’s powerful about this award is that Dr. Duchimaza Heredia leveraged the LEAPS-MPS program to win this support so early in his career. This will propel his research with his students.”
Looking ahead to two years from now, Dr. Duchimaza Heredia said it’s certainly an ambitious thought to have the question of his research answered – but in the meantime, he sees it as an opportunity to train Emmanuel students along the way.
“This is huge training grounds for students [and] I’m so happy to be able to provide that,” he said. The NSF grant includes stipends for students to help support them financially, and Dr. Duchimaza Heredia also hopes to bring students to national conferences, like the American Chemistry Society (ACS), the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in the Sciences (SACNAS), or the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE) for example – opportunities he said he wished he had as an undergraduate.
“Dr. Aren Gerdon, Professor of Chemistry and Chair of the Chemistry & Physics DepartmentThis support will allow undergraduates to work at the cutting edge of computational chemistry. This is an important and growing area of chemistry research but not an area that undergraduates often get to explore – making this really unique.”
The grant will also provide opportunities for student researchers to connect with educators at two different levels in Boston: one being Dr. Qiang Cui, a computational chemist and professor at Boston University, where students will be able to work with his graduate-level lab and attend lab meetings.
A high school teacher in the area will get involved in the research at Emmanuel College as well, allowing them to take the new computational chemistry knowledge into their own classroom, providing their students with an early look at what is a niche specialization in the field of Chemistry and in the sciences.
Returning for the Fall Semester
Dr. Duchimaza Heredia recently returned from a research partnership at Princeton University, where he was accompanied by chemistry undergraduates Gwyn Gagnon ’26 and Megan Reilly ‘26 from Emmanuel as well.
“It’s hard to put it into words,” he said – but the two-month summer research partnership was a phenomenal experience – allowing him to receive advice and feedback from faculty members at Princeton that he can bring to his now grant-funded research.
They also had the opportunity to tour the Merck & Co, Inc. facility in New Jersey, which gave Dr. Duchimaza Heredia a new perspective on the industry side of the chemistry field, having only been in academia throughout his career. Now with that new insight, he said he’ll be able to share more with his students about what industry recruiters are looking for – not necessarily specific skills, he said, but how prospective employees and scientists approach solving problems.