Research Experience for Undergraduates
EMSI has supported several students each summer since 1999 as part
of the NSF-REU program in chemistry and engineering, including 6 students in the summer of 2003. Students work directly with faculty mentors in the EMSI program on active research projects, participating fully in the usual range of research related activities that include group meetings, seminars, and presentation of research results.
Columbia EMSI and Chemistry Department REU Students, Summer 2002
Admission to the ten-week summer research program is very competitive.
Research activities are generally directed by the faculty member with
responsibility for direct supervision falling to post-doctoral fellows
supported by EMSI.
Group meetings are typically held weekly and each of the research students
makes at least one presentation to their research group, in addition to a
summary presentation to the entire Columbia community at a symposium ending
the program in August. It is expected that several of these undergraduate research students will
be listed as co-authors on publications that will emerge from their summer
research activities, in peer-reviewed journals.
A weekly lecture series, directed specifically at the REU group, is a
vehicle for EMSI faculty and distinguished guest lecturers to present
their field of research in perspective and to summarize recent results. It
also provides opportunities for post-doctoral fellows to begin their move
to the next level as they advance in their careers by giving some of the
perspective lectures. EMSI Professors Turro, Parkin and McDermott, all of the Chemistry Department,
made presentations in 2002. Past speakers have included Nobel Laureate Horst Stormer, who
presented an EMSI/REU lecture on nanotechnology and "Quantum Sheets, Wires,
and Dots." The summer of 2002 also featured a special Symposium on Integrative Research that brought together a wide range of speakers from Columbia and elsewhere.
Two additional features of the summer research program are field trips to sites such as industrial research laboratories - IBM and Wyeth-Ayerst - and Brookhaven National Laboratory.