Description

The REU site in functional materials at the University of South Florida in Tampa provides a 10-week, research immersion experience for 8 students with limited research opportunities at their home institutions. Our site will inspire and engage a new generation of chemists in a stimulating and diverse environment. REU students will advance the understanding, design, creation and isolation of molecules with tailored and desirable properties. Participants will synthesize new catalysts, sensors and peptidomimetics, develop sol-gel coatings, enzymes, liposomes, and light harvesting systems, make innovative semiconductors, characterize photoswitches and protein switches, and synthesize and characterize natural products. The program closely integrates hand-on laboratory research with education. Guided by faculty mentors and their graduate students, REU students will learn critical research skills by spending the majority of time working in the laboratory, while workshops will impart key knowledge on scientific communication, research careers, and laboratory safety. In collaboration with the National Academy of Inventors, workshops will be given on intellectual property and entrepreneurship. The program will be concluded with a campus-wide undergraduate research symposium.

Application deadline: Feb. 1, 2027

Program dates: May 17 to July 23, 2027

http://www.functionalmaterialsreu.org