The CERSP seeks to use the educational process at all levels to build support for implementation of

The CERSP seeks to use the educational process at all levels to build support for implementation of “green chemistry”. Our initial focus is on collaboration and innovation because these are of global importance, typically are not taught in academic programs, and are undergoing change and transformation in today’s world. We seek to provide a new generation of students with both the technical and social tools to effect this transition. Specifically our objectives are to:

	Prepare students broadly for successful careers in industry, academia and government
	Help students, faculty and scientists contribute to the Center’s immediate success by providing them opportunities to learn and practice a variety of strategies and skills.

We’ve supported internships to encourage undergraduates and high school students to choose scientific careers. These programs are heavily weighted towards historically underrepresented segments of society.

NOTE: Our Center will not be offering summer internships this year. For additional summer internship opportunities with other Centers, please visit our news page for more information. Extensive listings of paid summer research opportunities can be found at http://www.agep.us/summer.asp and http://www.igert.org/summer.asp.

2006
During 2006 thirteen undergraduate and two high school students received a challenging and educational summer research experience sponsored by CERSP

· Some 1010 interns applied for internships through the joint NSF STC recruitment site.

18 interns picked CERSP as 1^st choice for summer 2006 experience and 26 interns picked CERSP as 2^nd or 3^rd choice

Invitation Letters sent to 15 students; 14 accepted. 6 students accepted appointments at NCSU REU and 8 students accepted appointments at UNC

79% were from underrepresented groups including six African-Americans (four males), seven females, and one Hispanic.

Leveraging of existing programs continues in order to reach nationally high school and undergraduate students:

Project SEED (http://www.projectseed.org/) at UNC-CH (focusing on African-American high school students); one SEED student accepted at UNC this summer

We continue to seek students from the following programs but had none in 2006

	SPGRE program sponsored by Prof. Henry Frierson at UNC-CH (http://www.unc.edu/depts/res/spgre.htm and the related Research Education Support (RES) Program (http://www.ibiblio.org/res/);
	NSF STC Undergraduate Research Coordination program (http://www.nsfstc.org/centers.htm)

A new REU proposal was submitted by CERSP partner, NC State University, and was awarded. Six of the students listed below were funded by this REU.

UNC Activities Target Date 2006

Welcome Luncheon (Spanky’s Restaurant) May 22

Safety Overview May 22

Orientation May 22

Entrepreneurs’ Sessions (Desimone/Carbonell) June 13

Industrial Tours (Glaxo Smith Kline) June 20

Tour of New Science Complex July 7

Intern Group Meetings Weekly

CERSp Videoconference Group Meetings Weekly

Final Presentations July 19

Exit Interviews July 19

Awards Luncheon July 21

NCSU REUs Activities Target Date 2006

Campus Laboratory Safety Orientation June 2

Welcome Reception for students and mentors - June 2

Group Picnic at Michael Paesler's home June 2

Research Ethics Symposium

Natural History Museum behind the scene tour – June 17

Trips to CISCO, EPA, GlaxoSmithKline, etc –

Beach day trip on Saturday July 1

Picnic with fireworks at Fairgrounds July 4

Hiking Umstead Park –

Poster Training Sessions –

Durham Bulls Game –- July 7

GRE Workshops –

Prof. Darlene Taylor, RICHES Director and leader of our summer program, met the summer interns weekly. She had each of them to discuss with the group their research progress. This appeared to be an excellent means to build continuity, community and to identify problems promptly, before they became disruptive.

Last, First	Undergrad Institution	Major	Status	Site	Faculty Mentor	Research Topic
Alford,# Jonathan	NC A&T State University	Chem Eng	Soph	UNC-CH	Sheiko	Conditions for Lift off and Adsorption of Polymers on Surface
Bergquist, Curtis	UNC at Chapel Hill	Music	Soph	UNC-CH	Joseph DeSimone	PRINTing Particles
Campbell, Candice	New Mexico State U	Physics	Fresh	NCSU	Peter Kilpatrick	Low Temperature Radiation Upgrading of Heavy Oils and Bitumen
DeLeon, David	UNC at Chapel Hill	Chem	Junior	UNC-CH	Joseph DeSimone	Fluoropolymers for PRINT
Dunn, Erin	UNC-Chapel Hill	Chem	Junior	UNC-CH	Joseph DeSimone	Applying Nano-technology to High Surface Area Fuel Cells
Fakhouri, Sami	UNC at Chapel Hill	Chem	Soph	UNC-CH	Joseph DeSimone	Drug Releasing Polymer Particles via PRINT
Haithcock, Brandi	Southern Alamance High School, Graham, NC	NA	High School	UNC-CH	Joseph DeSimone	Magnetopolymer Nanocomposites from P.R.I.N.T. Technique
Kubinski, Susan	Arizona State University	Chem Eng	Soph	NCSU	Hasan Jameel	Conversion of Mixed Office Waste Paper to Ethanol
Montanez, Gabriela	Arizona State University	Chem Eng	Soph	NCSU	Dr. Peter Kilpatrick	CO₂ Soluble GRAS Solvents for Extracting Nutraceuticals by a Gas Anti-Solvent Process
Montgomery, Aaron	University of Virginia	Mech Eng	Junior	UNC-CH	Joseph DeSimone	Thermodynamics behind the PRINT process
Morton, Leslie	UNC at Chapel Hill	Polymer Chem	Soph	UNC-CH	Joseph DeSimone	Alternative Fluoropolymers to the Avoid Challenges Associated with PFOA
Paul, # Evan	NC A&T State University	Chem Eng	Soph	NCSU	Peter Fedkiw	Direct Methanol Fuel Cell
Petschke, Eric	NC State University	Chem Eng	Senior	NCSU	Gregory Parsons	Principles of Solar Cells Fabrication of Organic Solar Cells
McLaughlin, Stephen	NC State University	Chem Eng	Soph	NCSU	David Ollis	Photocatalytic Regeneration of Carbon Absorption System
Muse, * Carletta Devonne	-------------	-------------	High School	UNC-CH	Valerie Ashby	Biosorbable particles

* Project SEED

# EXPERT Student from NCA&T

Exit interviews were held with summer interns at UNC-CH. A summary of comments is given in the following table. All of the students said that the experience interested them in graduate school or medical research for the first time or reinforced their interest. A summary is given below in the Table.

Table 2006 Summer Program Exit Interview Summary

Ø Administrative issues

o Salary issues adequately explained except withholding requirements

o Could salary be increased for more experienced students?

o No food in dorms on weekends, an inconvenience

o Locate away from summer sports camp participants

o Parking is expensive; can we provide or recommend options?

o They claim they did not receive abstracts of videoconferences beforehand; are they on our normal distribution list?

Ø Orientation

o Overall good. Might include more about the STC and website

Lab and safety (plus video) very good. Having individual mentors helped

Ø Planning

o Initial planning sessions good; expectations clear

o Could have better informed and trained mentors beforehand

o All interns felt assignments were appropriate for their interests and abilities

Ø Entrepreneurship

o Excellent. Even those not interested in doing it themselves were interested to see how things work

o Unlike previous years, most students were aware of such activities.

Ø GlaxoSmithKline tour

o Mixed. Most felt that presentations were interesting but lab tours were too long, with too much time spent on seeing instruments they already knew about. They would have preferred seeing an actual plant. Perhaps we should consider inquiring about Stockhausen in Greensboro.

Ø Weekly intern meetings

o These and group meetings were more meaningful and useful than Thursday videoconferences, which lacked enough background to be useful

o Should be scheduled on Tuesday (or some day other than Thursday)

o Should have fewer speakers or perhaps share reporting

Ø Thursday CERSP

o Poor. Most felt they were a waste of time except when members of their group spoke. Would rather spend the time in the lab. They did not have the background to understand content.

o On the other hand, as everyone else was in the videoconference they didn’t think it would be a good idea for them to be in the labs alone.

Ø General comments

o Probably not appropriate for high school (at least not at rising junior level)

· Starts too early (they’re still in school)

· Don’t have the background

o Interest in graduate school increased for undergrads

· Confirmed interest for those unsure

o Ten weeks about right to complete lab project with all of the external activities

o Mentors were excellent!

o Would have liked more social activities (UNC-CH group, NC State okay)

2004

	CO₂Based Sterilization Michael John Cangelosi, UNC-Chapel Hill (CERSP Funded) Mentors: Colin Wood and Professor Joseph DeSimone
	Perfluoropolyether Fouling Release Coatings Johnaustin Chapman, Cedar Ridge High School (PROJECT Seed Funded) Mentors: Jason Yarbrough and Professor Joseph DeSimone
	Fractionation of PDMS in CO₂ Compared to Fraction by Organic Solvents Emily Connelly, Northern High School (PROJECT Seed Funded) Mentors: Zhilian Zhou and Professor Joseph DeSimone
	Photoluminescence of Semiconductor Zinc Oxide Nanorods Desmond Harvey, Langston University (CERSP Funded) Mentors: Lei Zhang and Professor Edward T. Samulski
	Synthesis of Functionalized Biomaterials Noah D.Meeks, Northern Kentucky University (CERSP Funded) Mentors: Janet Maegerlein and Professor Valerie Ashby
	Copper CMP in CO₂: Slurry Stabilization Lauren Ellen Portnow, UNC-Chapel Hill (CERSP Funded) Mentors: Pamela Visintin and Professor Joseph DeSimone
	Copper Etching Using Micellar Water in Carbon Dioxide Systems Renee C. Smith, UNC-Chapel Hill (Research Education Support Funded) Mentors: Ginger Denison and Professor Joseph DeSimone
	PDMS as a Fouling Release Coating David Robinson Snead, UNC-Chapel Hill (ONR Funded) Mentors: Jason Rolland and Professor Joseph DeSimone

2001

	Thermodynamic Measurements of CO₂ Containing Systems Alessandra Carreon and Vinayak Kabadi
	Designing Photoresist Systems for Carbon Dioxide Bryant Suitte, Devin Flowers, and Joseph M. Desimone
	_{Characterization of Phase Behavior of Homopolymers Used for Coating Applications in Carbon Dioxide} Brooke Hester, Gerardo Montero, Robert Harris
	Real-time Rate Monitoring of Decontamination of Solid Surfaces in SCCO₂ Israel Vargas Jr., Paa-Joe Akoto-Ampaw, and Christine S. Grant
	Continuous and Batch Polymerization of Vinylidene Fluoride in CO₂Nathan Lechene, Lou Wojcinski, and George Roberts
	Investigation of Dye-Fiber Reactions in SC-CO₂ Nneka C. Ubaka-Adams, Ahmed El-Shafei, Gerardo Montero, and David Hinks
	Characterization of Phase Equilibrium Associated With Heterogeneous Polymerizations in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Shama Karu, Karen Kennedy, and George Roberts
	Synthesis of Cationic Nanogels Through Microemulsion Polymerization Tamona Williams, Karen Erford, J.M. DeSimone, and Michael Rubenstein
	Synthesis of Fluorinated Homopolymers by ATRP and the Determination of Their Extent Solubility in CO2 by Light ScatteringTiffani Nicole Bailey^, Sarah L. Folk, J. M. DeSimone
	Generation of Microcellular Polymeric Foams (MPFs) in Liquid and Supercritical Carbon Dioxide John Coughlan, Srinivas Siripurapu, Saad Khan and Richard Spontak