This renewal award from the Division of Chemistry (CHE) led by Professors James Spiegel will supports a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site in the Department of Chemistry at Western Washington University for three summers. This REU program supports eight undergraduate students for 10 weeks each summer from community colleges and small four-year universities with limited student research opportunities. The combination of externally funded research with the central involvement of undergraduate students in research projects results in an environment where REU participants are involved in meaningful summer research experiences. REU participants are able to choose a research project from one of three main areas of chemistry: biochemistry, synthetic chemistry and materials chemistry. The broader impacts of this REU site are to provide undergraduate students who have limited access to chemistry research with an authentic research experience. Among the recruited participants, an emphasis is placed on underrepresented minorities from community colleges and the University of Alaska system, resulting in a diverse population of students in this program, which contributes to increasing the diversity of the scientific workforce. Furthermore, the incorporation of community college students into an REU program has an additional impact by encouraging these students to consider graduate school as an educational opportunity.
The combination of well-funded, cutting-edge research, and the involvement of undergraduate students in research, results in an outstanding environment for external undergraduate students to be involved in a summer research experience. REU participants are able to choose a project from one of three main areas of chemistry: biochemistry (protein structure, protein folding and design, biophysics of DNA modification), synthetic chemistry (organic method development, natural product synthesis, small molecule activation), and materials chemistry (solar concentrators, heterogeneous catalysis, ionic liquids, nanomaterials). In addition to numerous formal and informal activities for the entire group of REU participants, these divisional groups provide additional training that is specific to the research area, including workshops and combined group meetings. The culmination of the summer program is a symposium in which REU participants give poster presentations on their research projects in addition to keynote speakers from each of the three research areas.
