REU Site: Undergraduate Research in Chemistry at Western Washington University

Western Washington University, Bellingham WA

Investigators

Abstract

This REU Site award to Western Washington University (WWU), located in Bellingham, WA, will support the training of 8 students for 10 weeks during the summers of 2018-2020. This site is supported by the NSF Division of Chemistry in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate, in partnership with the Department of Defense. This program in WWU's Department of Chemistry provides research projects and professional development for students from community colleges and small four-year universities with limited research opportunities. Among the recruited participants, an emphasis is placed on underrepresented minorities from community colleges. Under the guidance of a faculty mentor, the students perform research in the areas of biochemistry, synthetic chemistry, or materials chemistry. In addition to providing an authentic research experience for these students, this program facilitates student transitions from community colleges to four-year universities, thus increasing the likelihood of these students obtaining an advanced degree in the sciences. The research training and workshops for REU participants provides them with training towards a career in chemistry, or a related science, and contributes to increasing the diversity of the scientific workforce. The student participants choose a research project from one of three main areas of chemistry: biochemistry (structure, function and engineering of proteins and nucleic acids), synthetic chemistry (organic and organometallic method development, natural product synthesis, small molecule activation, biomaterials), or materials chemistry (nanomaterials, solar concentrators, heterogeneous catalysis, computational methods). This program also provides workshops that improve students' perspectives on how to conduct research, communicate scientifically, and initiate their career in chemistry. In addition to numerous formal and informal activities for the entire group of REU participants, divisional groups (biochemistry, synthetic chemistry, and materials chemistry) are used to provide additional training that is specific to the research area, including workshops and combined group meetings. Many projects are also collaborative between multiple investigators at WWU, allowing the REU students to interact with more faculty members and get exposure to a broader scope of research topics. The culmination of the summer program is a symposium in which REU participants give poster presentations on their research projects in addition to keynote speakers from each of the three research areas. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.