REU Site: Undergraduate Research Addressing Global Challenges

This Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site award to University of Minnesota, located in Minneapolis, MN, supports the training of 10 students for 10 weeks during the summers of 2024-2026. In this program, funded by the Division of Chemistry, undergraduate students will carry out research that addresses some of the globally most pressing environmental, energy, and human health problems. Participants will gain challenging research experiences in a nurturing environment at a major research university using top facilities and instrumentation, preparing them for future careers in industry and academia. Students will be mentored with individual development plans, taking into account their diverse backgrounds. The research experience of the fellows will be supplemented with extensive professional mentoring and hands-on training. They will participate in an end-of-summer research symposium and will have an opportunity to present their work at a national chemistry meeting. Optional activities will include instrumentation training, library tutorials, and classes at the Minnesota Supercomputer Institute as well as a variety of activities with faculty, graduate students, and postdocs, where mentoring occurs informally. Fellows will be encouraged to volunteer for an outreach program that gives children the opportunity to perform hands-on chemistry experiments at local community libraries, many of which are in neighborhoods with large minority communities. 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.