The Iowa State University site is supported by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program for the summers of 2005-2007. The program director is Xueyu Song who is assisted by co-PI James Evans. This REU site will introduce undergraduate students to a broad array of methods in computational chemistry, chemical engineering and physics, with special emphasis on applications in materials science. The primary faculty mentors have been drawn from the Departments of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Mathematics and Physics, with collaborators from experimental areas of materials science and the Ames Laboratory Scalable Computing Laboratory. The experimentalists will provide valuable perspectives regarding the way in which theory can interface with experiments, and they will present overview lectures on the experiments that connect most directly with theory. Existing experiment-theory collaborations will enhance and reinforce the emphasis to the students that this experiment-theory interface is critical for a successful modern research effort. All of the mentors have robust research groups, and most have extensive experience working with undergraduate researchers. Because of the ease with which computational chemistry and physics can be conducted from remote locations, this program will provide an exceptional opportunity for undergraduate scientists to continue their collaborations after they have returned to their home institutions.
