Desiree Bates is a Computational Chemistry Leader within the Department of Chemistry. Desiree Bates teaches students at a variety of levels on how to employ computational approaches to aid their research. In addition, Bates teaches a course on basic computational chemistry for non-theoretical chemistry students. She is committed to supporting student life and diversity, contributing to new initiatives such as the recruiting program Chemistry Opportunities (CHOPs) and Catalyst, a graduate student peer-mentoring program.