REU Site: Research Experience for Undergraduates at the Interface of Computations and Experiments at the Department of Chemistry at North Carolina State University

This award, supported by the Division of Chemistry (CHE) at the National Science Foundation supports a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site at North Carolina State University (NCSU), led by Professors Elon A. Ison and Elena Jakubikova. Professors Ison and Jakubikova will execute a series of recruiting strategies to recruit students from underrepresented groups, women, and first generation college students primarily from the Southeast and Middle Atlantic region, and from the University of Puerto Rico system. These students will be exposed to career opportunities in non-academic settings in the Research Triangle Park (RTP) area, participate in social and professional activities provided on campus to encourage student interactions with other undergraduate and REU programs at NCSU. They will provide training for local middle and high school teachers from the Lee County system in the basics of computational chemistry so that they can develop curricula and implement computational methods early in the academic training of students. Thus the combined impact of this proposed REU site is the increased training and development of students in STEM fields from middle school through college.

The focus of the NSF funded REU site at NCSU is to expose sophomore and junior students from primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs) and from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to one of many possible independent research topics that combine experimental techniques and computational methods in an academic setting. During their 10-week training, the students will learn practical laboratory skills, and acquire the basics of computational methodologies through a series of practical lectures in the recently upgraded computational facilities. Major goals are to enable students to make informed career and graduate or professional school choices and to allow the students to be better prepared to achieve a high level of success in their chosen career pathways. As such, on-site visits to leading chemical companies and government laboratories in the Research Triangle Park (RTP) will be organized.