REU Site: Experimental and Computational Chemistry of Materials and Bio-Molecular Systems

This Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site award to the University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City, UT, supports the training of 10 students for 10 weeks during the summers of 2025-2027. In this program, funded by the Division of Chemistry and the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program, participants pursue cutting-edge research projects under the guidance of experienced and committed mentors, addressing a range of challenging chemistry-related problems in energy, health, and the environment. Participants also will take part in professional development activities to enhance skills in data analysis and computation, develop scientific communication skills, and prepare for graduate schools and modern STEM careers. By providing research experiences enriched by cohort building, mentor training, workshops, a graduate school mini expo, and a research conference, this site trains undergraduates for careers in STEM and strengthens connections between the University of Utah and primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs) from around the nation. This site also has a focus on serving regional students in Utah and the Mountain West region. Participants will advance research projects with an emphasis on model building, data analysis, and computation from all areas of chemistry. These projects include studying organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors; modeling the self-assembly of nanoparticles; discovering chemical ligands of bacterial sensory domains; developing new materials and polymers to separate and recover phosphate; and studies of organometallic catalysts combining experiments and data science. To support the data analysis and modeling aspects of their projects, students will participate in a series of summer workshops run by members of the Henry Eyring Center for Theoretical Chemistry. Students will also receive opportunities for career exploration and networking through local industry tours. 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.