Most chemistry students spend time thinking about molecules. Nolan Cynkar spends time thinking about how scientists think about molecules.
The Carnegie Mellon University senior, who is majoring in chemistry and philosophy, said the language scientists use can influence the questions they ask. The idea grew out of his work developing environmentally friendly materials for next-generation electronics.
“Philosophy comes into play because the way we talk about chemistry influences what we study and how we choose to orient our research,” Cynkar said. “I believe by changing the language we’re using and our mental image of chemical properties, we gain insight into important facets of research.”
Cynkar noticed the use of language in chemistry while working in the lab of Chemistry Professor and Associate Department Head Kevin Noonan. Cynkar reached out before his first year at Carnegie Mellon and started that same summer.
Noonan’s group focuses on finding new materials for semiconductors, which power virtually all modern electronics. Most semiconductor devices are built on silicon, which is energy-intensive to produce and difficult to recover once integrated into electronics. When they reach the end of their life, they contribute to e-waste, and the components can pollute the environment.
To address that challenge, Noonan's lab investigates whether organic polymers can serve as more sustainable semiconductors. Polymers make up a range of materials from tires to plastic bags to fabrics, and chemists can tailor their properties for a wide range of applications. Unlike silicon, they can be designed to break down or be recovered.
“There’s a lot of demand for microelectronics, and until recently, no one had worked out an organic path,” Cynkar said. “Polymers aren’t traditional semiconducting materials, but they sit at an interesting place in terms of theoretical and practical applications.”
As part of the Noonan lab, Cynkar investigated new methods to create polymers that could conduct electricity. During a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship in 2025, he developed precise polymers that could be converted into flexible, conductive films.
“Nolan embraced the undergraduate experience from the start,” Noonan said. “He started as a freshman and demonstrated a real interest in understanding and delving deep into our polymer research. He always spent a lot of time on the ‘why’ of things, which speaks to his passion for philosophy.”
While the research focused on creating new materials, it also led Cynkar to a different question: How do chemists decide what counts as evidence, explanation or understanding?
Working in the lab led Cynkar to notice the language chemists used to describe molecules and material properties influenced how they interpreted results and framed new questions. Through his background in philosophy, Cynkar began examining the assumptions embedded in those descriptions.
“I want to shed light about the language use occurring in chemistry to redefine concepts with a more appropriate mix of experimental grounding and abstract modelling,” Cynkar said.
He joined Carnegie Mellon’s Summer School in Logic and Formal Epistemology in 2026 to learn how to apply philosophical techniques. The program teaches students to combine philosophical and scientific approaches to understanding knowledge and discovery. He applies techniques he learned from the program to study chemistry’s conceptual foundations. He also attended the International Society for the Philosophy of Chemistry (ISPC) conference, which offered him new insights.
“I was fortunate enough to attend the annual ISPC conference that same summer, which discusses current work sitting on the intersection of these two disciplines,” Cynkar said. “I realized there is a lot of conceptual work to be done, and I’m pursuing that theoretical approach.”
His interdisciplinary work earned him Niccolai-Fustanio Families Scholarship Award, which recognizes a senior who has achieved academic success while pursuing meaningful experiences outside of the classroom. The scholarship was established in 2016 by Mellon College of Science alumni Nilo A. and Phylis F. Niccolai.
“Rather than asking whether he is a chemist or a philosopher, Nolan asks how the two inform each other,” said Gizelle Sherwood, teaching professor and director of undergraduate studies for chemistry. “He has pursued knowledge from multiple directions.”
After he graduates in the spring, Cynkar said he hopes to pursue graduate school and continue exploring the relationship between philosophy and chemistry.
“There’s a lot of very nuanced ways science makes progress about the world we live in, and it’s hard to have a full appreciation of that if you don’t study other fields,” Cynkar said. “I found it helped to gain a philosophical perspective about the sciences.”