HRD-9628475 Ackerman Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus requests support for the acquisition of a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer with a superconducting magnet, operating at 300 MHz. The University will provide non-Federal matching funds on a one-to-one basis. The University is a private institution and its Brooklyn Campus has an enrollment of 8,000 students, more than 50% of whom are minorities underrepresented in the sciences. This proposal is made on behalf of the department of chemistry, which experiences approximately 900 undergraduate and 70 graduate (master's level) registrations per semester. There are 41 undergraduate chemistry majors: 14 are Black and 3 are Hispanic; 27 are women and 14 are men. The Molecular Biology undergraduate program (co-sponsored by the chemistry and biology departments) has 20 undergraduate majors: 7 are Black and 2 are Hispanic; 12 are women. The master's program in chemistry has 16 majors: 7 are Black, 2 are Hispanic, and 12 are women. The acquisition of the NMR spectrometer will fill a major gap in the otherwise adequate research and instructional equipment of the department. It will strengthen the research environment of the institution and will enhance very significantly the research capabilities of five faculty, will have beneficial impact on the capabilities of two more, and will bring about a significant improvement il the laboratory training of those students majoring in chemistry. The proposed research to be performed on the instrument includes classical organic syntheses, the development of new catalysts for organic compound transformations and polymerizations, the development of new materials with interesting electrical properties, the better understanding of properties and thermodynamics of unsaturated molecules, and the better fundamental understanding and modeling of industrial resin manufacture. These projects are for the immediate future and it is expected that the equipment wi ll remain in service for the next 10-15 years, maintained by the University, will support many more research undertakings, and will increase significantly the contribution of this institution to the Nation's scientific research activities.
