REU site: Chemistry for a Sustainable Future - an International Research Experience in the UK

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The Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site award to the University of North Carolina Greensboro, located in Greensboro, NC, supports the training of 8 students for 10 weeks during the summers of 2023-2025. In this program, funded by the Division of Chemistry, participants pursue collaborative research in chemistry at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom. Students will work with faculty who are members of University of Bath’s Institute for Sustainability, which brings together multidisciplinary expertise to address problems related to climate and sustainability through research in sustainable chemical technologies as applied to polymers, energy sources, catalysis, chemical transformations and environmental chemistry. The students will also participate in workshops and activities designed to enhance their communication skills and understanding of scientific ethics, and prepare them to make the transition to graduate programs or industrial positions in STEM fields. The research, workshops and other activities will be infused with an international perspective to help participants become part of a diverse, globally competitive STEM workforce in the future.The students undertake individual projects encompassing all fields of sustainable chemistry. These include research into sustainable polymers from renewable sources, new battery technology, upgrading of renewable resources and clean energy. The goal of the project is to recruit a minimum of 50% underrepresented students in chemistry by concentrating on two pools of students. The first focus is on students in a local consortium of nine institutions (three HCBU’s, one MSI, six primarily undergraduate institutions (PUI’s), one women’s college and a community college). The second focus is concentrating recruitment efforts on HCBU’s, MSI’s and PUI’s in the southeastern U.S.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.