Sister Rose M. Mulligan, IHM, Ph.D.

BIOGRAPHY:

When I entered the religious congregation of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, IHM, I was blessed with many teaching mentors. For ten years, I learned a wealth of educational skills by teaching many subjects in junior high school. In graduate school at Drexel University, I served as a TA, and helped to develop undergraduate lab experiments from using fuel cells to continuing work in developing experiments for a student heat conduction, 2-drop, calorimeter. My research, under the direction of Dr. Allan Smith, focused on a novel instrument. My dissertation focused on the thermodynamic and rheological studies of polymer and protein sorption at a solid/gas interface using a Quartz Crystal Microbalance/Heat Conduction Calorimeter (QCM/HCC).

Currently I enjoy teaching chemistry and working with students on research projects. I am a member of the American Chemical Society, ACS, and the American Association of Chemistry Teachers, AACT.

Courses Taught:

• CHE 100 Survey of Chemistry
• CHE 102 Basic College Chemistry II
• CHE 104 Fundamental Chemical Concepts II
• CHE 105 Forensic Science
• CHE 315 Physical Chemistry III
• CHE 317 History of Chemistry
• SCI 397 Senior Seminar II

Selected Publications and Presentations:

• Smith, A.L.; Mulligan, R., Shirazi, H. “Determining the Effects of Vapor Sorption in Polymers with the Quartz Crystal Microbalance/Heat Conduction Calorimeter.” Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics, 2004, 42(21), 3893-3906.
• Smith, A.L.; Shirazi, H.M.; Mulligan, R. “Water Sorption Isotherms and Enthalpies of Water Sorption by Lysozyme Using the Quartz Crystal Microbalance/Heat Conduction Calorimeter.” Biochimica et Biophysica Acta. 2002, 1594, 150-159.
• Wadsö, L.; Smith, A.L.; Shirazi, H.M.; Mulligan, R.; Hofelich, T. “The Isothermal Heat Conduction Calorimeter: A Versatile Instrument for Studying Processes in Physics, Chemistry and Biology.” Journal of Chemical Education. 2001, 78(8), 1080-1087.
• Served as editor of NATAS Notes, a tri-yearly publication of the North American Thermal Analysis Society, Feb. 2005 – 2007.
• Awarded Clare Booth Luce Scholarship for Student Researchers, 2020, 2021
• Awarded Immaculata University Sponsored Research Mini-Grant to purchase, May, 2022 , Upgraded OrginPro graphing and statistical analysis software.
• Guided student presentations, American Chemical Society, ACS, Eastern U.S., Aug. 5, 2021 , Younger Chemists Committee, YCC, Research Symposium and Chemistry Career Expo.

Research Interests:

My current research interests focus on developing lab experiences for our forensic science class using Raman and IR spectroscopy to differentiate fibers, plastics, and OTC drugs. We are exploring the use of a chemometric tool, PCA, principal component analysis to further characterize these areas.