REU Site: Undergraduate Research in Chemistry at Western Washington University

位于华盛顿州贝灵汉市的西华盛顿大学的本科生研究体验(REU)站点奖，支持在2023-2025年夏季对8名学生进行为期10周的培训。在这个由化学系资助的项目中，参与者从事生物化学、合成化学或材料化学领域的研究项目。参与者的招募工作集中在STEM领域中身份不被充分代表的学生，特别是来自社区学院和研究机会有限的四年制机构的学生。因此，这一计划有助于许多学生过渡到四年制大学。参与者还参加每周一次的职业发展培训研讨会，在华盛顿西部进行几次短途旅行，并在项目期间的REU研讨会上展示海报。自2011年以来，这个REU网站积极扩大了对STEM的参与，为那些本来可能无法接触到化学研究的学生提供经验。参与者从事的研究项目涵盖了化学领域的广泛领域。这些项目包括开发丝质生物材料、合成用于改善治疗用途的天然产品、设计等离子体纳米颗粒或聚合物-半导体纳米晶复合材料，以及研究用于可持续燃料的新型催化材料。其他项目包括蛋白质生物化学、结构生物学和计算生物学研究，研究内在无序的蛋白质、细菌分类酶和对血液凝固和其他信号通路至关重要的蛋白质。其中几个项目是合作的，涉及化学系的多个研究实验室。参与者还参加每周一次的专业发展研讨会，包括如何进行研究和维护实验室笔记本，进行科学交流，以及开始他们的化学职业生涯。有几种正式和非正式的活动供参与者参加，重点放在建立社区上。夏季计划的高潮是一个研讨会，庆祝参与者的研究，并包括来自三个主要研究领域(生物化学、合成化学、材料化学)的主旨演讲者。这一奖项反映了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 Western Washington University, located in Bellingham, WA, 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 research projects in the fields of biochemistry, synthetic chemistry, or materials chemistry. Recruitment efforts for participants are focused on students from underrepresented identities in STEM fields, specifically from community colleges and four-year institutions with limited research opportunities. This program therefore facilitates the transition to a four-year university for many of the students. Participants also take part in weekly professional development training seminars, engage in several excursions around Western Washington, and present a poster at an REU symposium during the program. Since 2011, this REU site has actively broadened participation in STEM by providing experiences for students who otherwise may not have access to chemistry research. Participants undertake research projects encompassing a broad range of fields in chemistry. These include projects that develop silk-based biomaterials, synthesize natural products for improved therapeutic uses, design plasmonic nanoparticles or polymer-semiconductor nanocrystal composites, and investigate new catalytic materials for sustainable fuels. Other projects include protein biochemistry, structural biology, and computational biology studies on intrinsically disordered proteins, bacterial sortases, and proteins critical for blood coagulation and other signaling pathways. Several of these projects are collaborative, and involve multiple research labs in the chemistry department. Participants also attend weekly professional development seminars, including how to conduct research and maintain a lab notebook, communicate scientifically, and initiate their careers in chemistry. There are several formal and informal activities for participants, and a strong emphasis is placed on building community. The culmination of the summer program is a symposium that celebrates the participants’ research and includes keynote speakers from each of the three main research areas (biochemistry, synthetic chemistry, materials chemistry).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.