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

本科生的研究经验（REU）网站授予德克萨斯州商业大学，位于德克萨斯州商业，支持9名学生的培训，从德克萨斯州东北部地区的社区学院招募，在2025年至2028年的夏天为期10周。 在这个程序中，由化学部资助，参与者追求合作研究项目，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。参与者还参加专业发展和道德培训计划，重点是科学交流和研究生院和工业职业的准备。通过独立的研究项目，实地考察，研讨会和系列研讨会，该网站扩大了STEM的参与。学生们进行个人项目，涵盖化学的所有领域。这些项目包括环境污染物传感器的合成、质谱研究和计算机模拟，以了解蛋白质如何结合金属、开发不对称反应催化剂和从生物质生产生物燃料，以及调查细菌代谢途径的调节。专业发展系列包括职业准备研讨会，研究生院研讨会，实地考察化工设施，实地考察研究所，以及交流科学信息的研讨会。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管道的多样性，该网站从附近的农村和城市社区学院招募学生，这些学院为代表性不足的人口提供服务，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查进行评估，被认为值得支持的搜索.

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.