REU Site: Research Experience for Undergraduates in Chemistry at the University of Connecticut

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This award from the Division of Chemistry (CHE) supports a previously funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site at the University of Connecticut (UConn) for the summers of 2008-2010. This REU site will be managed by Christian Brueckner with assistance from Mark Peczuh, both from the Department of Chemistry at UConn. This REU site will bring eight students to campus for a ten-week period each summer to conduct cutting edge research in chemistry. An additional 1-2 students each summer will be supported with institutional funds. Faculty mentors with active research labs in the areas of organic, inorganic, analytical, physical, biological, and polymer chemistry will be available to the REU students. A partnership with Central Connecticut State University (CCSU), a primarily undergraduate institution where research opportunities in chemistry are limited, will be developed and each summer, two positions will be held for two students at CCSU. Research projects for these students will be designed so that they can be continued at CCSU once the summer research program at UConn has ended. As a new program for this funding cycle, a faculty member at CCSU, Guy Crundwell, will introduce small molecule single crystal CCD X-ray diffraction. Various other seminars will introduce the students to topics such as safe practices in the laboratories, how to present research results effectively, ethical issues in science, careers in chemistry, and scientific writing. Another highlight of the ancillary program is a guided tour of Pfizer Central Research Laboratories, a regional industrial research facility. The UConn REU program will culminate in oral presentations and a poster symposium shared among all of UConn's REU programs.