REU Site: Molecules Meet Materials

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。分子遇见材料（M3）本科生研究经验（REU）网站奖授予位于SD Vermillion的南达科他州大学，将在2022-2024年夏季期间支持10名学生的10周培训。在这个项目中，参与者追求合作研究项目，重点是界面化学。该网站将训练学生使用光谱学、电子显微镜、x射线衍射和计算方法来研究界面上的材料和分子。所有学生还将参加专业发展和道德培训计划，重点是科学传播和研究生院或工业职业生涯的准备。通过独立的研究项目和研讨会系列，该网站旨在扩大STEM（科学、技术、工程和数学）的参与，重点是招募和支持来自部落学院和初级本科院校（PUIs）的学生。本科生将与他们的同伴和导师合作，进行个人项目，包括与核壳等离子体纳米粒子在防伪中的应用、生物质转化的金属有机超级容器、改善f块元素分离的计算方法、全氟烷基化芳香分子的有机半导体材料、为特定细胞表面目标（如植物细胞、癌细胞或生物膜中的细菌细胞）量身定制表面的纳米颗粒。诸如此类的研究项目将与各种与界面化学相关的表征方法的培训以及以技能和职业发展为重点的讲习班相结合。这个网站将强调从部落学院和PUIs招收服务不足的学生；综合起来，这些努力旨在扩大STEM的参与，并使未来的化学科学劳动力多样化。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).The Molecules Meet Materials (M3) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site award to the University of South Dakota, located in Vermillion, SD, will support the training of 10 students for 10 weeks during the summers of 2022-2024. In this program, participants pursue collaborative research projects, with a focus on chemistry at interfaces. The site will train students to use spectroscopy, electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and computational methods to study materials and molecules at interfaces. All students will also take part in a professional development and ethics training program, with a focus on science communication and preparation for graduate school or industrial careers. Through independent research projects and workshop and seminar series, this site aims to broaden participation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), with a focus on recruiting and supporting students from Tribal Colleges and Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (PUIs). In collaboration with their peers and faculty mentors, the undergraduate students will undertake individual projects, including themes related to the use of core-shell plasmonic nanoparticles for applications in anti-counterfeiting, metal-organic supercontainers for biomass conversion, computational methods to improve f-block element separations, organic semiconductor materials from perfluoroalkylated aromatic molecules, nanoparticles with tailored surfaces for specific cellular surface targets such as plant cells, cancer cells, or bacterial cells in biofilms. Research projects such as these will be coupled with training on a variety of characterization methods relevant to interfacial chemistry and with workshops focused on skill and career development. This site will emphasize the recruitment of underserved students from Tribal Colleges and PUIs; combined, these efforts aim to broaden participation in STEM and to diversify the future chemical sciences workforce.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.