It is in the laboratory that Professor Preeti Dhar makes the most meaningful connections with her chemistry students.

Since her arrival to the college in 1999, Dhar has been active in developing research projects that three to four undergraduate chemistry students each year can be involved with outside of the classroom.

In the laboratory, Dhar sees her classroom lessons put into action as her students apply what they have learned.

“Suddenly the light bulb goes on in their heads and they start thinking like scientists,” she said. “That’s really fulfilling for a teacher to see.”

The Chemistry Department offers students the opportunity to work one-on-one with professors like Dhar on research projects not directly associated with a course. Dhar has been working with students to study the chemical structures of such local plants as white pine and cow parsnip.

According to Dhar, undergraduate students who participate in research projects are better prepared for the scientific world outside the New Paltz campus. The projects her student work on differ from the typical lab exercise. These projects, unlike lab exercises that are part of a course, have never been tested before. She said as students work on these projects their thinking progresses and they begin to ask questions and contribute their own hypotheses.

These projects have resulted in a number of students being able to present their findings at national meetings and in scholarly journals.

For Dhar, every day that she works with students in the lab is a learning experience. She said sometimes a student will pose a question that gets her thinking about a project in a completely new way.

You give them something, and you learn from them as well,” she said.