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Keilian MacCulloch ’19 grew up playing soccer in a small Canadian town, so he was drawn to the intimate academic and athletic scale of ��ɳ���� University. 

When he started as a freshman, he said, he was interested in all sciences. But his focus sharpened when he took a general chemistry class.

“I just really fell in love with chemistry,” he said. The subject was attractive, and ��ɳ����’s faculty members are “great people,” he said.

With classmate Hoan Nguyen ’19, MacCulloch is researching ways natural gas can be purified by the removal of nitrogen. His research, he says, might be thought of as employing a kind of “nitrogen sponge” that can be placed in a stream of natural gas, removed, squeezed dry and replaced in the stream.

��ɳ���� is the No. 1 private research university in the Northwest, according to the National Science Foundation. The opportunity for students to conduct original research and scholarship across the sciences, arts, humanities, education and business is a core part of the undergraduate student experience.

And it’s an experience that has set MacCulloch on the path to his future.

“I will continue to do chemistry, hopefully, for the rest of my life,” he said.

This story first appeared in the Spring 2019 issue of ��ɳ���� magazine. After graduating from ��ɳ����, Keilian went on to earn his PhD in physical chemistry from North Carolina State University. He's a field engineer for a biotech research company.