REU Site: Research in Chemistry at West Virginia University

西弗吉尼亚大学C.尤金·贝内特化学系的Richards-Babb、Popp教授及其同事主持了一个本科生研究经历（REU）网站。该项目由美国国家科学基金会（NSF）化学部门的REU站点计划和刺激竞争性研究的实验计划（EPSCoR）资助，在三个资助年度中每年支持10名学生，为期10周。本科生参与者被整合到以化学为重点的科学研究中，以培养下一代美国科学家。该项目主要支持来自本科院校和社区学院的学生，特别是女性、代表性不足的少数民族、美国武装部队退伍军人和来自经济落后地区（如阿巴拉契亚）的人。参与提高了参与者参加化学或相关学科研究生水平培训的可能性，从而提高了美国的科学劳动力。为参与者提供了一个全面的计划，使他们迅速走向研究独立。这项准备工作包括日常的研究工作，其中包括研究过程和尖端科学仪器的培训；实验室安全;科学道德;沟通;和协作。研究项目的重点是研究在保健、法医学/犯罪学、能源、可持续性和交通等领域直接和间接造福社会的潜力。该项目侧重于解决与健康化学相关的基本科学问题，包括：开发用于检测或治疗疾病（如阿尔茨海默氏症、癌症）的治疗药物；新的催化反应，包括使用可持续和生物相容的方法合成药物和精细化学品，以及从实验和理论上检查燃烧过程，以减少对环境有害的排放。主要研究内容包括：环对苯乙烯作为碳纳米管模板的合成；利用扫描探针技术研究生物相关表面的纳米级力学响应；利用激光泵浦探测光谱法研究自由基燃烧产物动力学离子迁移-质谱法研究亨廷顿蛋白低聚物形成的发展用蒸汽压和安托万图来解释温度如何影响火灾碎屑中汽油样品的风化；铜催化氧化脱羧偶联产物的合成及其核磁共振、红外和质谱表征。REU参与者与教师和研究生合作开展研究，并接受现代科学设备（核磁共振，红外，IMS-MS，扫描探针技术，激光泵探针光谱学等）和/或使用计算机建模软件的培训。

Professors Richards-Babb, Popp, and colleagues in the C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry at West Virginia University host a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site. This project is funded by the REU Sites Program in the Chemistry Division and the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) both at the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support 10 students for 10 weeks in each of the three grant years. Undergraduate student participants are integrated into chemistry-focused scientific investigations in order to train the next generation of U.S. scientists. This project largely supports students from primarily undergraduate institutions and community colleges, especially women, underrepresented minorities, U.S. Armed Forces veterans and persons from economically depressed areas (e.g., Appalachia). Involvement improves the likelihood that participants enroll in graduate-level training in chemistry or a related discipline, thereby improving the scientific workforce of the United States. Participants are provided with a comprehensive program that rapidly moves them toward research independence. This preparation includes day-to-day research work intermingled with training in: the research process and cutting-edge scientific instrumentation; laboratory safety; scientific ethics; communication; and collaboration. Research projects are focused on the potential of research to benefit society both directly and indirectly in the fields of health care, forensics/criminology, energy, sustainability, and transportation.This project focuses on solving fundamental scientific problems related to the chemistry of health including: the development of therapeutic drugs for detection or treatment of diseases (e.g., Alzheimer's, cancer); new catalytic reactions including the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals using sustainable and biocompatible methods, and the examination of the combustion process, both experimentally and theoretically, in order to reduce environmentally harmful emissions. The research includes: the synthesis of cycloparaphenylenes as templates for carbon nanotubes; the use of scanning probe techniques to study nanoscale mechanical responses of biologically relevant surfaces; the use of laser pump-probe spectroscopy to study the kinetics of radical combustion products; the development of ion mobility-mass spectrometry methods studying oligomer formation by the huntingtin protein; the application of vapor pressure and Antoine plots to explain how temperature affects the weathering of gasoline samples in fire debris; and the synthesis of copper-catalyzed oxidative decarboxylative coupling products and their characterization via NMR, IR, and mass spectrometry. REU participants carry out their research in collaboration with faculty and graduate students and are trained on modern scientific equipment (NMR, IR, IMS-MS, scanning probe techniques, laser-pump probe spectroscopy, etc.) and/or in the use of computer modeling software.