This Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site is in the area of Polymer Science and Engineering and will run for 10 weeks in summer during 2009 to 2011 at Case Western Reserve University. Ten undergraduate students will be recruited nationally each year. These REU students will join active research groups engaged in polymer synthesis, studies of structure and properties, novel processing methodologies and fundamental simulations and contribute to the research. The goal of the program is to prepare the students with a strong background in polymer research, supplemented by lectures on basics of polymers, and exposure to key questions in research ethics and entrepreneurship. The students will present the results of their research to peers and also at the Northeast Ohio Undergraduate Polymer Research Conference. Students will have the opportunity to gain insights into research careers and graduate school.
This site is co-funded by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program. Within NSF, this award is jointly funded by the Division of Materials Research in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate and the Division of Engineering Education Centers in the Engineering Directorate.
Polymer Science & Engineering is a critical sector in the U.S. economy which employs the majority of its chemists and chemical engineers. The Research Experience for Undergraduates in Polymer Science & Engineering has brought 60 American undergraduate students to the Cleveland OH campus of Case Western Reserve University (home of the first stand-alone polymer program in the U.S.) in order to provide education and training in polymers and in the art of research. The vast majority of these students came from primarily undergraduate schools and minority-serving colleges and universities – institutions which do not generally provide a research environment for undergraduates. These students, 35% minority and 50% women, live on campus together, where they form strong social bonds while carrying out cutting edge research in polymer fundamentals, materials for energy, materials for defense, and materials for medicine, working side-by-side with Ph.D. students in the research groups of 14 internationally-known faculty members. Lessons in polymers, communication, business, ethics and applying to graduate school are all part of the program, which culminates in a research symposium jointly with summer programs at the University of Akron, Kent State University and the NASA Glenn Research Center. Intellectual Merit: clear focus on the methodologies of research and in polymers, training young people for a key sector of the American economy. Broader Impact: by focusing on primarily undergraduate and minority-serving institutions, students who normally would not gain such state of the art research training are included in the applicant pool for the nation’s Ph.D. programs, a vital human resources issue.
