REU Site: Research Experiences for Undergraduates at Georgia State University

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This award from the Division of Chemistry at the National Science Foundation and the Division of Biological Infrastructure (DBI) in the Directorate of Biological Sciences support a Research Experiences for Undergraduate (REU) Site led by Professors Suri Iyer and Dabney W. Dixon, both at the Georgia State University (GSU). The REU Site entitled "Research Experiences for Undergraduates at Georgia State University" will fund 10 undergraduate students for a 10 week summer research experiences. Faculty at GSU has a history of working closely with undergraduate and high school students. While the program will be open to students from all states, students will be recruited from local four year and two year community colleges. The REU site in Atlanta, the ninth largest city in the United States with a high concentration of minorities and economically disadvantaged students, would afford these students an opportunity to work under the direct supervision of research active faculty and would provide them with increased career prospects in the sciences. The intellectual merit of the proposed activities are expected to advance knowledge in specific projects, and will allow undergraduates to understand scientific concepts by combining theory and experiment in a research setting. In addition, lectures on diverse topics that include scientific writing and improving presentation skills will prepare the students for scientific careers. The Site leaders are well qualified to successfully conduct the project because Professor Iyer has served as the coordinator of the ACS Project SEED program for the past eight years and professor Dixon has extensive experience in managing the STEM program at GSU for the past four years.Additionally, all research mentors mentioned in this proposal have worked with undergraduates (100) resulting in a number of local, regional and national presentations and publications with undergraduates as coauthors over the past five years. The broader impacts of the proposal are that individual projects are expected to advance scientific discovery and understanding and will promote independent thinking and working in a group environment. The proposed activities are expected to broaden the participation of underrepresented groups as well as economically disadvantaged students. Students' research findings will be disseminated in the form of presentations at ACS regional and national meetings and through publications in refereed journals. Overall, the proposed activities are beneficial to society because the proposed research activities will not only enhance fundamental knowledge in specific areas, but it is also expected that students participating in this REU program will attend graduate programs and join the scientific workforce.