iREU Site: Chemical Sciences in China

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This award from the Division of Chemistry (CHE), with cofunding from the Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE) and the Division of Materials Research (DMR), supports a new international Research Experiences for Undergraduates (iREU) site at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor (UM) and Peking University (PKU) in Beijing, China for the summers of 2008-2010. The program will be organized and managed by Brian Coppola, Associate Dean of the UM Department of Chemistry, with assistance from James Penner-Hahn, Associate Dean for Research in the Natural Sciences in the UM College of Literature, Science and Arts. The PKU Chemistry Department Vice Dean, Professor Li Zi-Chen, will serve as the in-department REU program coordinator in Beijing. Thirteen junior or senior undergraduates (10 supported by NSF and 3 supported by institutional funds) will travel to Beijing, China to participate in a ten-and-a-half week program in the Department of Chemistry at Peking University (PKU). During the first two-and-a-half weeks of the program, the U.S. REU students will participate in an intensive orientation to the Chinese language and culture, conducted mainly by immersion in Beijing. The students will spend the remaining eight weeks conducting independent research projects within PKU research groups. Peking University is the premiere research university in China and supports the traditional core areas of chemistry and interdisciplinary work in the chemical sciences. Over 50% of the chemistry faculty works in areas that overlap with other major areas of science including: Medicinal Chemistry, Materials Science & Engineering, Polymer Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Biological Chemistry, and the Life Sciences. This program is being set up as a bilateral exchange, using funding from the China side for its students to do research at UM. At the end of the ten-and-a-half week program, the U.S. REU students will participate in a joint, intercontinental electronic poster session with their Chinese counterparts who are working in the U.S.