REU Site: Research Experiences for Community College Students in Chemistry and Biochemistry at Texas A&M University-Commerce

得克萨斯农工商业大学本科生研究体验(REU)网站奖，位于德克萨斯州商业区，支持从德克萨斯州东北部社区大学招收的9名学生在2025-2028年夏季进行为期10周的培训。在这个由化学系资助的项目中，参与者进行合作研究项目，重点是分析化学、可再生能源、催化剂设计、有机化学和生物化学。参与者还参加职业发展和道德培训计划，重点是科学交流和为研究生院和工业职业生涯做准备。通过独立的研究项目、实地考察、研讨会和一系列研讨会，该网站扩大了对STEM的参与。学生们从事涵盖所有化学领域的个人项目。这些项目包括环境污染物传感器的合成、了解蛋白质如何与金属结合的质谱学研究和计算机模拟、用于不对称反应和从生物质中生产生物燃料的催化剂的开发以及对细菌代谢途径调节的研究。专业发展系列包括职业准备讲习班、研究生院讲习班、对化学工业设施的实地考察、对研究机构的实地考察以及关于交流科学信息的讲习班。前REU学生和行业代表通过Zoom研讨会为参与者提供指导。为了增加STEM渠道的多样性，该网站从附近的农村和城市社区学院招收学生，这些学院服务于代表性不足的人口，从而为本来没有机会进行本科生研究的个人提供研究机会。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site award to Texas A&M University-Commerce, located in Commerce, TX, supports the training of 9 students, recruited from community colleges in the Northeast Texas region, for 10 weeks during the summers of 2025-2028. In this program, funded by the Division of Chemistry, participants pursue collaborative research projects, which focus on analytical chemistry, renewable energy, catalyst design, organic chemistry, and biochemistry. Participants also take part in professional development and ethics training programs, with a focus on science communication and preparation for graduate school and industrial careers. Through independent research projects, field trips, workshops and a seminar series, this site broadens participation in STEM. The students undertake individual projects encompassing all fields of chemistry. These projects include the synthesis of sensors for environmental contaminants, mass spectrometric studies and computer simulations to understand how proteins bind metals, the development of catalysts for asymmetric reactions and to produce biofuel from biomass and an investigation of the regulation of metabolic pathways in bacteria. The professional development series includes a career readiness workshop, a graduate school workshop, a field trip to a chemical industrial facility, a field trip to a research institute, and workshops on communicating scientific information. Former REU students and industry representatives provide mentorship to the participants through Zoom seminar sessions. To increase diversity in the STEM pipeline, this site recruits students from nearby rural and urban community colleges, which serves an underrepresented population, thereby providing research opportunities to individuals who would not otherwise have an opportunity to conduct undergraduate research.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.