REU Site: Summer Research in Molecular Biophysics

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This award, made to Princeton University, is supported by the NSF Division of Biological Infrastructure (DBI) in the Directorate of Biological Sciences, the Division of Chemistry (CHE) in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS), and the Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE). Princeton University will provide research training for nine weeks for ten students for summers 2010-2013. The scientific focus of the program is molecular biophysics, an interdisciplinary field in which conceptual approaches and experimental methods from the physical sciences and mathematics are applied to solve biological problems. Students with an interest in biology who are majoring in physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering, or computer sciences are eligible during their freshman, sophomore, or junior year; applicants must be US citizens or permanent residents, and those without access to research opportunities at their own institution are given preference. A one-week orientation is followed by eight weeks of laboratory research. Participants meet regularly as a group for directed discussions including laboratory safety, research ethics and responsible conduct, scientific method, the roles of science in society, the nature and value of scholarship, graduate education and research careers, and the mechanisms and benefits of interdisciplinary, international, and collaborative research. Research progress is reviewed weekly; at the end of summer participants present their results in a multi-program student conference styled like a scientific meeting. Successful completion qualifies participants to apply for a ten-week, collaborative international research opportunity in the subsequent summer at the Institute of Systems Biology and Ecology of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Nove Hrady, South Bohemia, where participants conduct research and study in an international summer school that offers intensive practical training in specific areas of molecular biophysics, culminating in a two-day student research conference. All participants are tracked longitudinally beyond graduation to assess the program's impact on cross-disciplinary research careers, and a common assessment tool is used to evaluate achievement of the program's overall goals. For more information please contact: Dr. Istvan Pelczer, Dr. Jannette Carey, or Katherine D. Comstock at 609-258-3900 or kdc@princeton.edu. The program maintains a website through which all inquiries and applications are submitted (www.princeton.edu/reumolbiophysics).