John Helms, assistant professor of chemistry, recently had a paper published in the journal Analytical Chemistry.

John Helms, assistant professor of chemistry at Morningside College, recently had a paper published in the journal Analytical Chemistry.

The paper focused on his study of dissolved organic nitrogen, a molecule that serves as a middle step between living and nonliving things in the aquatic nitrogen cycle. Helms was able to view the chemical composition of dissolved organic nitrogen with unprecedented detail. This will help scientists better understand how nutrients are cycled at the molecular level and will provide insights into the role of dissolved organic nitrogen in the global nitrogen cycle.

Helms became a faculty member at Morningside College in 2014 after a postdoctoral fellowship in the Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry Research Laboratory at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He received his doctorate from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va.