This award by the Chemistry Division supports a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site at the University at Buffalo for the summers of 2009-2011. The program director is Janet Morrow and the co-director is Sarbajit Banerjee. Eight students will participate in a ten-week program by working with faculty members on chemistry projects relating to global sustainability including inorganic /organic materials for catalysis and energy related research, environmental analytical chemistry, medicinal chemistry and chemical biology. The program will recruit students from local and national colleges and universities, especially from primarily undergraduate institutions. In addition, recruiting efforts are focused on institutions with underrepresented groups including Puerto Rican institutions, colleges in the New York City area and institutions that participate in New York state LSAMP program. Students will attend weekly lectures and workshops on ethics, selection of graduate schools, careers, and research topics. Group activities to build a community of practice will include weekly research meetings with graduate student and faculty mentors, an oral presentation for the REU participants and mentors, and a poster presentation for students and faculty. In addition, there will be field trips to several chemical industry sites and research centers in Western New York to expose students to different careers in chemistry. Both formal and informal evaluations will be conducted with the help of an external evaluator, Rene Palmer, from St. John?s University.
Twenty-seven students participated in our Research Experiences for Undergraduates site at the University at Buffalo (UB) on the topic of "Global Sustainability through Chemistry". Each summer, the program ran for ten weeks and provided the opportunity for students to work on an original research project in the laboratory of a chemistry faculty member at UB. The topics of research projects ranged widely and encompassed the different disciplines of chemistry. Examples include the environmental analysis of pollutants in fish and the development of chemistry towards improved solar cells. Several of the projects had collaborative components with more than one faculty member either within chemistry or in physics, engineering or biology departments. The students were guided in their research by graduate student mentors and by faculty members. The students presented their work both orally and in poster presentations. Students published their work in journals and several of them gave presentations at American Chemical Society Meetings. The students met every week for lectures on safety in the laboratory, career panels, and special topics in environmental, analytical, inorganic, physical or organic chemistry. The students and their mentors visited different companies in the Western New York area that are involved in chemical or materials research in order to expose the students to various careers outside of academics that are available to chemists with advanced degrees including Honeywell, Bausch and Lomb, Wilson Greatbach, and Rich Foods. These tours served to emphasize the practically of chemistry research and the opportunities for advancement and management of research. Greater impacts include the introduction of twenty-seven bright and curious undergraduate students to research. Most of the students were studying at four year colleges with little opportunity for research. About half of the students were from underrepresented minority groups and half were women. These students were encouraged to apply for graduate research at UB and at other chemistry departments around the country. Several of the students will continue their research back at their home institutions in long term collaborations with UB faculty.
