This renewal award by the Chemistry Division supports the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site at Georgetown University for the summers of 2009-2011. The program co-directors are Sarah Stoll and Jennifer Swift. Each year eight students recruited from across the country, but with a focus on the Mid-Atlantic region, will have an opportunity to work on well-defined research projects in all the major areas of chemistry. The program will target first generation college students, with special consideration for those who may not already have participated in research. The interests and experience of the student participants will be matched with the individual research groups in the department. Participants will have access to all of the modern equipment available and will acquire skills in designing and conducting experimental work and analyzing scientific data. They will also participate in a series of weekly career development workshops covering oral and written communication skills, ethics, resume writing and science careers, and the graduate school selection and application processes. Social events afford the opportunity for enhanced student-student and student-faculty exchange while local field trips will provide exposure to scientists at non-academic settings. The program concludes with a poster session in which the REU participants and all other summer undergraduate researchers in the department present their results.
The NSF-REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) program in the Georgetown (GU) Chemistry department was first established in 2006. This grant supported very successful REU summer research programs in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Admission to the program was extremely competitive, as evidenced by the 600 applications received for 27 funded spots. The REU participants came from a variety of colleges and universities across the US and had diverse demographics (33% minority, 48% female, and 26% first generation college students). REU students joined individual research labs on the GU campus for a 10 week period and fully engaged in intensive research projects which span all major areas of chemistry. These include but are not limited to chemical and materials synthesis, nanoparticle characterization, computational and medicinal chemistry and biochemistry. Students also participated in a series of weekly professional development workshops which cover topics ranging from scientific ethics, writing, and presentation skills, etc. Several of the professional development workshops and additional extra-curricular activities were co-sponsored by the GU Physics REU program. All activities were open to additional GU (non-REU) undergraduate summer researchers. Between 5/09 – 5/12, REU students co-authored 15 scientific publications, 1 patent and made 13 conference presentations. The career paths of the 24 REU participants who have completed their undergraduate studies are as follows: 12 (50%) pursued PhD programs, 4 (16.6%) are enrolled in Medical, Dental or PharmD programs, 3 (12.5%) sought employment in industry and 2 (7.1%) are in science education positions (career plans for 2 are unknown).
