Clad in a white lab coat and safety glasses, Chloe deGraft-Johnson stood in the Villanova University chemistry lab last week, working with a rotary evaporator, rotovap for short.
It allowed the chemistry major from Stamford, Conn., to remove liquid from her bacteria sample.
“I don’t think I’d be able to do any of this in my house,” said deGraft-Johnson, 18, a rising sophomore. “I don’t have a rotovap at home.”
She is among 130 Villanova students back on campus for summer research for the first time since the coronavirus struck.
Many campuses, including Villanova, restricted undergraduate summer research last year when COVID-19 vaccines weren’t available. This summer, the labs at Villanova and other universities around the region are alive again with the sounds of students collaborating and learning.
» READ MORE: The vaccination debate on college campuses
And while research…
