After scaling the hillside and making their way into a sheep pasture, Honors chemistry senior Mitchell Kenny and his fellow labmates settled into the grass. Below, the city of Kiel, Germany held its annual celebration of the local castle burning down, setting off fireworks over the river. Gold sparks lighting up the sky remains one of his most cherished memories from his time exploring science abroad.
Kenny’s time in Germany cemented his pursuit of chemistry in graduate school.
When he came to Oregon State, Kenny had no idea where chemistry would lead him. He’d been drawn to drama and the arts up until high school, and even then he focused on computer science. But after a chemistry class encouraged him to take the leap, he excelled in the major thanks to a passion for discovery. His undergraduate research experience has since taken him from several labs on campus to Kiel University in Germany. Looking forward, he will be heading to Northwestern University this fall to begin working toward a Ph.D.
“You don't need knowledge to do research and you don't need to be smart. You just have to be persistent,” he said.
Crystals in Kiel
Despite having a biology teacher for a mom and a pathobiology professor for a grandfather, science was never truly on Kenny’s radar growing up. One of his greatest joys was the stage.
His main specialty at his art-focused middle school was drama. Particularly in improvisation, the craft’s spontaneity spoke to him. It was a way of breaking out of a social shell and learning to flow through chaos, skills he still uses to this day.
For high school, however, he made the stark transition to a tech school. The contrast was palpable, and although he eventually graduated as valedictorian, the computer science courses never felt quite right. With college on the horizon, neither the arts nor technology stood out to him as possibilities.
“After that, I was like, I’m not doing either of those. I’ve tried them and they’re cool, but not really for me,” he recalled.
It wasn’t until a chemistry class that he saw a potential future in a field. Going into college, he decided to test the major’s waters and see what it had in store.
Kenny knew that research experience would be key to his undergraduate studies and quickly joined the URSA Engage Program. URSA pairs early-career undergraduates with faculty mentors to get a headstart on research. He began working in Kyriakos Stylianou’s lab to create metal-organic frameworks, crystalline materials that are highly porous — akin to sponges — and can be fine-tuned to a variety of functions.
Kenny and his scholarship group traveled to Heidelberg, Germany during his summer abroad.
After completing the program, Kenny decided to expand his knowledge by joining Paul Cheong’s group. Instead of experimental chemistry, his work there focused on computational techniques — using mathematics and models to predict experimental outcomes. Balancing coursework with molecular dynamics studies, Kenny remained in the lab for a year before an opportunity came along that would permanently change his trajectory.
Sponsored by the American Chemical Society and the German Academic Exchange Service, he came across an exchange program to work full-time in a German lab researching MOFs for a summer. His research experience and the support of his mentors made him a competitive applicant, and he was thrilled to receive an acceptance into the program. He was swept away to Kiel and began his three-month journey abroad.
“I was essentially a master’s student for those three months, working somewhat independently on a project for 40 hours a week, living life in Germany,” he said.
The experience was transformative and solidified not only his passion for research, but his desire to go to graduate school and seek a Ph.D. He grew to love a life in science there, from daily traditions of lab coffee breaks to techniques like high-throughput inorganic synthesis. When he came back to Oregon State, he knew returning to Stylianou’s lab and working with MOFs was the way forward.
“That was definitely a turning point because I thought, okay, I'm going to grad school, what do I need to do?” Kenny said.
Independence and innovation
With renewed focus on MOFs and a much larger pool of knowledge to pull from, Kenny returned to Oregon State and set to work. Bringing over the research he’d done in Germany, he launched an independent project within the Stylianou Lab exploring porphyrin-adenine frameworks. These structures have a range of potential applications in catalysis and gas storage.
“I like making new stuff. That does kind of force the use of crystallography, specifically single-crystal X-ray diffraction, because you need to actually know what you made,” he explained.
In October 2024, Kenny traveled with the Stylianou Lab to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to perform x-ray diffraction studies on MOFs.
Kenny quickly became adept in utilizing single-crystal X-ray diffraction, a notoriously challenging technique. He would spend hours at the microscope, learning to grow and analyze crystals, and eventually began mentoring other undergraduates. “Now I have my own undergrads that I can ask to help me on my project. It’s great.”
His work has led to significant findings. With palladium porphyrins in particular, he discovered four distinct structures — an unusually high number.
“That’s kind of ridiculous,” he said. “I don’t know of any other MOF system where you have these components and get all these different structures.”
Persevering for the future
Kenny’s journey hasn’t been without obstacles. With the weight of funding cuts, amplified skepticism surrounding science and other stressors out of his control, it hasn’t always been an easy path. But the community he found at Oregon State and beyond, along with understanding the things he can control, has been a great support during uncertain times.
“Everything that could possibly go wrong is actively going wrong. Okay, what can I do to live my life? I just keep doing what I’m doing,” he said.
Committed to the freedom of discovery offered in academia, he is determined to earn his Ph.D. and broaden what we as humanity can achieve through science. He encourages other STEM students, no matter their experience or prior knowledge on a subject, to pursue research in whatever they find passion in.
‘I feel like there's not an appreciation for advancing human knowledge from current leaders,” he said. “That's what research is — you are making new knowledge. And I’ll have the most freedom to make that new knowledge with a Ph.D.”
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