By Grace Sferraza (CAS`26, COM`26)

In 2024, then-first-year chemistry PhD student Holly McAnlis noticed a problem: graduate life was so demanding that students had little time to connect. “People are in their bubbles,” McAnlis said. “You’re slammed with teaching, working, and research—it’s hard to foster those connections.”

So McAnlis teamed up with Chemistry Department Chair Sean Elliott to survey graduate students. The overwhelming response: for more opportunities for building community.

That led to the creation of ChemUnity, a student organization that partners with the department to host social events beyond the usual fall barbecue and winter party. Their first event was “Burritos and Chemistry BINGO,” held in Spring 2024.

Then Senior chemistry lecturer Alexis Courtney, an avid runner, proposed a new experiment: a running team. The hypothesis was simple: bringing together people from across the department—graduate students, undergraduates, faculty, staff, and even alumni—for a shared experience outside the lab.

The result was Team BU Chemistry: “Running Reactions,” which debuted at the Fall Classic 5K in Cambridge on Oct. 5. The team won a trophy for the largest team at the race. Over 50 graduate and undergraduate students, along with some alumni and faculty, gathered on a sunny fall day to run, walk, jog and chat with their fellow chemists.

“The reason why I reached out to ChemUnity was because I wanted to get as many people involved as possible,” said Courtney. “It wasn’t just like one group of people from chemistry, because sometimes that can happen, just faculty or just grad students, but it was a great mix of all different grad years and faculty and staff.”

The success of the 5K has sparked excitement for more experiments. ChemUnity is cooking up some new events in the near future, including a day at the MFA and BU Pub night for graduate students. The next event is a Friendsgiving potluck on Nov. 21.

“People should come to a lot of events,” said McAnlis, now a third-year chemistry PhD student. “You’re going to relate to a lot of other people who are also going on this graduate student journey that you are on as well.”