This award, jointly funded by the Division of Materials Research and Chemistry a the National Science Foundation, supports the continuation of the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site program at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. The REU Site program supports 14 undergraduates for 10 weeks each summer during 2009 to 2011. Participating REU students work on interdisciplinary projects in materials research with close guidance from faculty mentors in Chemistry, Physics and/or Engineering departments. The interdisciplinary environment encourages the REU students to think about their respective projects in broad terms and to consider applications of their research to new technologies and issues relating to manufacturing of new devices. REU students have the opportunity to present their research to a diverse audience across disciplines during the program and at the end-of-program poster presentation as well as in regional and national conferences. Opportunities to network with peers, faculty mentors, and other scientists and engineers are provided through evening and week-end social and cultural activities included in the program. Students are recruited nationally, with particular emphasis on students from groups underrepresented in science and engineering, as well as socio-economically disadvantaged and first-generation college students. The goals of the REU site include: 1) creating a positive image of science and engineering as a career choice; 2) providing a nurturing research environment; 3) improving the participants' communication skills; 4) teaching basic research tools (including modern instrumentation); 5) fostering collaborative research; and 6) increasing the number of domestic students, especially those from underrepresented groups, who choose careers in science and engineering.
During this funding period, this REU Site hosted 43 undergraduate research participants. Our faculty mentors are primarily from the fields of Chemistry, Physics, and Engineering, with most student research projects involving interdisciplinary materials research (broadly defined). Inclusion of mentors from various disciplines provides opportunities for the REU students to think about their respective projects in broad terms and explain their results to a diverse audience. These skills are particularly important in industry and academia where interdisciplinary teams are standard and researchers must communicate effectively across disciplines. Students are encouraged to think about the application of their research to new technologies and to consider issues relating to the manufacturing of new devices. Our REU website is at the address: www.chem.siu.edu/undergrad/reu.htm. This REU Site has six primary goals: 1) we will create a positive image of science and engineering as a career choice; 2) by providing a nurturing environment, we will instill a sense of confidence in the art of discussing and practicing science; 3) we will improve the participants’ oral and written communication skills; 4) we will teach basic research tools, including literature searches and the operation of modern instrumentation; 5) we will foster a collaborative teamwork approach to research; and 6) we will increase the number of domestic students, especially those from underrepresented groups, who choose to further their careers in science and engineering. Intellectual Merit. Taken together, the participants’ research projects are highly interdisciplinary, with special emphasis on materials chemistry and nanotechnology. These studies have included nanoscale polymer brush films that respond to environmental changes; the study of molecular structure and dynamics in solids and anisotropic liquids by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy; nanocomposite films for biomedical implants; adsorption kinetics and diffusion of gases on nanotube bundles; plasma polymer-modified substrates for mass spectrometry (MALDI MS) analysis; lithography and patterning of molecules and nanoparticles using nanotubes; chiral brush polymers for enantiomeric analysis; fluid dynamics properties and performance of nanofluids; fabrication of nanostructures and aligned carbon nanotubes; surface ordering and orientation of fluorinated and semifluorinated alkanes on SiO2 surfaces; molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of sintering of fuel cell catalysts; use of TiC as a material for bipolar plates in PEM fuel cells; synthesis and characterization of bismuth oxide and zinc oxide nanostructures for use in photocatalysis and dye-sensitized solar cells; and in-situ growth of nanotubes on surfaces (among many others). As part of our Program, students participated in instrument training workshops in the following areas: NMR, mass spectrometry, electron and optical microscopy, various spectroscopies (like FT-IR and UV-Vis), ellipsometry, and thermal analysis (among others)—as well as library / reference resources. Each student also learned how to prepare and give oral presentations, maintain detailed laboratory records, work with peers in a team research environment, use data manipulation and figure preparation software, write up their scientific results in a final report in ACS journal format, and prepare and give a final poster presentation. Indeed, each year approximately 100 faculty, graduate students, and other scientists attend our summer research colloquium where the REU students present their work. Over the last 3 years our REU participants have co-authored over a dozen publications and over 40 conference presentations. Broader Impacts. The research projects of our REU participants are designed to be excellent training grounds for chemists, physicists, and engineers working in materials and related fields. Much of the research is in the field of nanotechnology, an area of national importance. Furthermore, our REU program supports our institution’s longstanding commitment to underrepresented groups. Our recruitment plan targets students from non-research-intensive institutions in the surrounding states, the Mississippi Delta region, and institutions of traditionally high enrollment of underrepresented groups; over 78% of our participants are from these targeted regions and schools. In this three-year cycle, we recruited 43 undergraduates, including 21 females, 22 males, 9 African American students, 2 Hispanic/Latino students, 2 Asian American students, 1 Native American student, and 29 White/non-Hispanic students (one of our students was also a U.S. Veteran); we also had 22 different faculty mentors, including 6 females, 16 males, 2 African Americans, 2 Hispanic/Latino faculty, 7 Asian Americans, and 11 white/non-Hispanic faculty. Of the 78 total participants over the last 6 years, 29.5% were from underrepresented groups (with 15 African-American, 6 Hispanic, 1 Native-American, and 1 visually impaired student, along with 5 Asian and 50 Caucasian students)—39.7% counting women in physics and engineering—and 47.4% were female. As of fall 2011, >75% of our REU alumni are on STEM career tracks. Moreover, 27.3% of those on STEM career tracks are from underrepresented minorities (38.2% counting women in physics & engineering)—numbers nearly identical to the original participant percentages.
