This summer, Nate Rutter BS’24 attended nuclear chemistry summer school at Brookhaven National Lab, a U.S. Department of Energy lab in Long Island, New York. His journey with the American Chemical Society and the DOE-sponsored program began with an email from professor Karen Holman, his inorganic chemistry professor-slash-rockstar, encouraging students to look into the highly selective program at the world-famous lab. “I realized that the opportunity to study and live at a lab for a short period of time doesn’t come every day,” he shares, prompting him to apply.
At Brookhaven, Rutter and 11 other students spent six weeks engaging with nuclear chemistry lectures, researching radioactive molecules, and connecting with experts. Lessons ranged from back-calculating a proper dose of radioactivity in cancer treatment to understanding nuclear chemistry in the universe — something he says is “wildly fascinating, but also very complex for the non-physicist.”
In the lab, his class ran hydroxide precipitation reactions and chemical separations to help improve nuclear waste disposal and environmental testing for radioactive atoms. Rutter, as a result, is hooked.
“My independent research project focused on the treatment of nuclear waste,” he says, noting that he concentrated on the United States’s need to conduct a major overhaul of its current policies and processes in disposing and recycling wastes.
Rutter’s experiences at Willamette and Brookhaven have inspired him to pursue a PhD in the field. “My goal is to solve current dilemmas with nuclear waste disposal, implement strategies used by European countries, and help create long-term safe solutions to nuclear waste storage,” he says. Several doctoral programs have already begun actively recruiting him due to his participation at Brookhaven.
Rutter is up for the challenge — and he’s benefited from strong relationships with Willamette’s faculty and staff every step of the way. He is currently wrapping up research with Chemistry professor Chuck Williamson investigating the phase behavior of liquids and solids. He also tutors and serves as a teaching assistant for chemistry classes and works in the chemistry stockroom learning from chemical hygiene officer Todd Melgreen. This year, Rutter plans to change his research focus to organic chemistry, studying anti-oxidants and drug-delivery polymers under Professor Andrew Duncan. Rutter believes that the hands-on experience he’s received at Willamette paired with knowledge from Brookhaven positions him as a future leader of sustainable nuclear energy research.
