REU Site at Kent State University: Liquid Crystals and Advanced Materials

This Research Experience for Undergraduates Sites (REU) award to Kent State University (KSU), located in Kent, OH, supports 10 students for 10 weeks of research training and professional development during the summers of 2021-2023. The site, supported by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU Program and the Division of Chemistry, is co-located in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry as well as the Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute.

Planned research projects are expected to bring together a diverse group of students who will work closely with faculty mentors to pursue scientific discovery in the area of advanced materials, from nano-chemistry and soft condensed matter physics to biological and polymeric materials. Students in this REU program will participate in all aspects of the scientific process, from design and execution of their project to interpretation and dissemination of research results, all in a cooperative and collegial atmosphere.

Students also take part in robust professional development programming, helping them to navigate their future careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

Students at this REU site will undertake research projects encompassing many areas of advanced materials. Available projects include explorations of controlled motion of bacteria in liquid crystals and other active matter, studies of DNA nano-assemblies and carbonaceous nanomaterials, efforts to achieve chirality amplification in soft matter and studies of liquid crystalline elastomers and of organic transistors.

Student professional development programming includes sessions on research ethics, analytical and materials characterization training, as well as clean room training, and a multi-REU-site research symposium. Students are recruited from two- and four-year institutions and minority serving institutions from various parts of the country, including Alaska.

Aside from exposure to a multidisciplinary research culture, this experience creates new friendships, networks, and aspirations that are expected to endure long after the summer research experiences are completed.

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.