This award provides funds to establish a Research Experience for Undergraduates SITE at the Center for the Study of Early Events in Photosynthesis at Arizona State University. Life on this planet is ultimately dependent on photosynthesis for its energy requirements. The Center, comprised of faculty in the departments of Botany and Chemistry and Biochemistry, takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the energy storage process carried out by photosynthetic organisms and mimicking photosynthesis using artificial systems. Undergraduate students will participate in the individual research programs of the Center faculty. Projects will include organic synthesis and spectroscopic studies of photosynthetic model compounds, spectroscopic studies of bacterial and plant photosynthetic reaction centers, biochemical and molecular characterization of mutant reaction centers, and molecular biology and genetics of photosynthetic systems. Structured interaction between faculty and student participants, including the weekly photosynthesis seminar series, research group meetings, instrumentation workshops and a concluding undergraduate symposium, will help educate the students in the extremely diverse modern approach to the study of photosynthesis. Student participants will be recruited from targeted colleges and universities in the Southwest United States with the help of local department chairs and individual faculty.
