REU Site: Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Environmental, Materials, and Biological Chemistry

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This award by the Chemistry Division supports a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities for the summers of 2006-2008. The program director is Steven Kass who is assisted by co-PI Philippe Buhlmann. Ten students each year will carry out research in environmental, materials, or biological chemistry. Participants will gain a research experience at the forefront of chemistry where they will see how the core disciplines of analytical, inorganic, organic and physical chemistry provide background for research in one or more of the emerging, nontraditional areas of chemistry. The students laboratory experience will be supplemented by giving informal presentations of their work, a 2 day library workshop, tutorials at the Minnesota Supercomputer Institute and in the operation and interpretation of NMR and mass spectrometry data. Additional activities include instruction and discussion of professional ethics in a classroom setting, a workshop on chemistry careers, faculty research presentations, an end-of-summer research symposium presentation, and an opportunity to present a paper at a national chemistry meeting during the following academic year. A variety of social activities also are planned where knowledge can be imparted in a light setting. Special efforts will be made to include members of under-represented minority groups, the economically disadvantaged, late bloomers who ordinarily would not get an opportunity to pursue careers in the chemical sciences.