Mississippi State University (MSU) is a public land-grant research university located in Starkville, Mississippi. With over $240 million in total research expenditures, and more than 600 principal investigators, it is the state’s highest-ranked research institution. The 2017 NSF Higher Education Research and Development Survey places MSU 94^th among all public and private research institutions, and its Carnegie Classification is listed as “Very High Research Activity,” the highest possible classification for PhD-granting institutions. MSU is home to several nationally-recognized institutes and centers, including the High Performance Computing Collaboratory (HPC²), the Institute for Genomics, Biocomputing, & Biotechnology (IGBB), and the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems (CAVS). MSU faculty are expected to excel in research, teaching, and service, and many are leaders in the fields of chemistry, biochemistry, and chemical engineering.