Integrated Computational and Experimental REU Site

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This award from the Division of Chemistry at the National Science Foundation supports a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) led by Professors Jeffrey D. Evanseck and Jeffry D. A. Madura, both at Duquesne University. The principal investigators will renew their novel REU Site to continue its impact on the careers and education of undergraduates from underrepresented populations and from institutions with limited research infrastructure. Duquesne's model of undergraduate research builds research teams, where seven student-faculty pairs recruited from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (LSAMP), and Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (PUI) are integrated with nationally recognized and extramurally funded research groups from Duquesne University. The objective is to deliver a quality undergraduate research experience that motivates students and faculty to achieve their highest academic performance and prepare them for scientific research and discovery. The core idea is to establish meaningful, year-around, and long-term research collaborations driven by the need for academic productivity and excellence in undergraduate training. The model is envisioned to perpetuate itself, where invested collaborations ultimately mature to independent funding, and are replaced by new partnerships between the host institution and other participants.The hypothesis is that strong financial and infrastructure support of research collaborations will invigorate HBCU, LSAMP, and PUI faculty, who will in turn directly impact students and learning environments at their home institutions. Duquesne faculty will train students, and gain immeasurably from the research expansion. REU students will have meaningful and novel chemical research experiences with broad scientific themes, such as nanotechnology, homeland security, pharmaceutical drug design, forensic sciences and chemical biology. Each student will work directly with two faculty mentors in the laboratory (home institution and Duquesne), and consult with a theoretical faculty liaison from Duquesne, since each REU project is supplemented by well-defined computational components to expand the students' experience. Duquesne has extraordinary resources, NSF-funded facilities, established research programs in molecular modeling, and a proven record in student placement and strong partnerships. The students will be trained to use state-of-the-art instrumentation to complement their experimental research and build invaluable skill sets. The activities planned support the intent of the REU Program by using meaningful research experiences to attract and retain the nation's diverse student talent pool, which will have the consequence of enhancing and diversifying the U.S. workforce by adding experts in the fields of chemistry or biochemistry.