This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
Funds from the Academic Research Infrastructure Program will be used to support the renovation of one synthesis laboratory, two laser laboratories and a computational chemistry facility, totaling 3300 square feet. Renovations to this research facility will directly impact five Chemistry faculty members and their research groups, which include about 25% of department graduate enrollment. Through collaborations and instrumentation sharing, the improvements also are expected to significantly enhance research and research training across the department, as well as in other departments. The renovations will directly impact the externally-supported research in computational chemistry, biophysical chemistry and organic, organometallic and inorganic synthetic chemistry from the research groups of Beck, Connick, Dima, Gudmundsdottir and Stan. The renovated facilities will update the research infrastructure, enabling new experiments and research activities for the participating faculty.
These renovations will promote scientific collaborations, especially among undergraduate and graduate students, as the improved laboratories will allow synergistic interactions between synthesis and analysis, as well as increase computational capabilities. These renovated facilities will expose students of all ages to a dynamic research atmosphere, which will reinforce efforts to excite these students about the study of Chemistry. It is anticipated that these renovations will significantly impact the department's recruitment of underrepresented minorities into Chemistry at the undergraduate level, while also enhancing recruitment of all students at the graduate level.
This NSF Infrastructure Award was used to renovate research laboratory space in Rieveschl Hall in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cincinnati. These renovations significantly improved the safety and utility of these research spaces, provided new capabilities for research in energy-related areas, spectroscopy and computational studies of proteins. These facility improvements expanded outreach and undergraduate research opportunities within the department. The outcomes of these facility improvements included the following: (1) Professor Connick's development of new two-electron transfer compounds that may have future applications in energy research; (2) Professor Connick's development of new sensing technologies that may have utility for hazardous waste remediation, among other applications; (3) Professor Stan's computational studies of protein-based nanomachines, which reveals details of how key cellular components behave; and (4) Professor Gudmundsdottir's research into new compounds that show unique photochemical behavior. These findings can lead to new opportunities for compound delivery, such as within commercial products. These renovated facilities were used to host a number of visitors to the University of Cincinnati Department of Chemistry. Professor Connick hosted a summer workshop for 8th grade students to expose these students to inquiry-based scientific experiments. Professor's Gudmundsdottir and Stan hosted summer undergraduate researchers from Central State University in Ohio, where these undergraduates could be exposed to modern spectroscopic and computational instrumentation and facilities to perform summer research projects. Further, a significant number of undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Cincinnati utilized these renovated facilities for their education and research training.
