iREU Site: The US/France REU Site in Chemistry

University Of Florida, Gainesville FL

Investigators

Abstract

This award from the Division of Chemistry (CHE), with co-funding from the Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE), supports the renewal of an international Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site between the University of Florida (UF) and France for the summers of 2008-2010. This renewal brings in new directions for the program through collaborations with Furman University (FU) and Morehouse College (MC), two primarily undergraduate institutions. The U.S. program will be under the overall direction of Randolph Duran of UF and the French program under the overall direction of Catherine Grosdemange of the Universite Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France. Duran will be assisted by Michael Scott of UF and Timothy Hanks, Site director at FU, in the administration and coordination of the U.S. students. Ten junior or senior undergraduates each summer will travel to France to participate in a twelve week program in research laboratories in a network of institutions in 8-10 different French cities. This program is set up as a bilateral exchange and an equivalent number of French students will be brought to the University of Florida and Furman University over a 16 week period and fully integrated into the domestic REU Sites at these institutions. The U.S. students will each spend the vast majority of their summer in "science immersion" distributed in groups of 2-4 students per French city over 3-4 different locations each year. The main scientific focus of most of the participating laboratories is materials chemistry. A three-day weekend post-REU meeting and poster session each October after the program ends will be held at the Florida Museum of Natural History.