Research Experience in Chemical and Biochemical Aspects of Photosynthesis

该奖项提供资金，在亚利桑那州立大学光合作用早期事件研究中心为本科生建立一个研究体验网站。地球上的生命最终依赖于光合作用来满足其能源需求。该中心由植物学、化学和生物化学系的教员组成，采用跨学科的方法来了解光合作用有机体进行的能量储存过程，并使用人工系统模拟光合作用。本科生将参加中心教职员工的个人研究项目。项目将包括光合作用模型化合物的有机合成和光谱研究，细菌和植物光合作用反应中心的光谱研究，突变反应中心的生化和分子表征，以及光合作用系统的分子生物学和遗传学。教师和学生参与者之间的有组织的互动，包括每周光合作用研讨会系列、研究小组会议、仪器研讨会和结束性本科生研讨会，将有助于教育学生以极其多样化的现代方法研究光合作用。学生参与者将在当地系主任和个别教职员工的帮助下，从美国西南部的目标学院和大学招募。

This award provides funds to establish a Research Experience for Undergraduates SITE at the Center for the Study of Early Events in Photosynthesis at Arizona State University. Life on this planet is ultimately dependent on photosynthesis for its energy requirements. The Center, comprised of faculty in the departments of Botany and Chemistry and Biochemistry, takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the energy storage process carried out by photosynthetic organisms and mimicking photosynthesis using artificial systems. Undergraduate students will participate in the individual research programs of the Center faculty. Projects will include organic synthesis and spectroscopic studies of photosynthetic model compounds, spectroscopic studies of bacterial and plant photosynthetic reaction centers, biochemical and molecular characterization of mutant reaction centers, and molecular biology and genetics of photosynthetic systems. Structured interaction between faculty and student participants, including the weekly photosynthesis seminar series, research group meetings, instrumentation workshops and a concluding undergraduate symposium, will help educate the students in the extremely diverse modern approach to the study of photosynthesis. Student participants will be recruited from targeted colleges and universities in the Southwest United States with the help of local department chairs and individual faculty.