Summer 2003 REU Program

	REU participants from left to right: Wyatt Rush, Ashley DeForest, Richard Green, Jessica Hronich, and David Schmerfeld

Our department hosted another successful NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site during the summer of 2003. This REU site is hosted in conjunction with the Department of Chemistry. Kerry Dooley again headed the program for chemical engineering, while Steve Watkins was in charge of chemistry.

Of the 14 students selected to participate in the program, five were chemical engineering majors. Each student was assigned to work with a faculty member on an established research project. Following are the names of the students who participated in last summer's program, their university affiliation, their research adviser, and the titles of their projects.

Ashley DeForest (Kansas State University), Gregory Griffin and Lidong Wang
Chemical Vapor Deposition of a Palladium Seed Layer for Electroless Copper Deposition

Richard Green (LSU), Kalliat Valsaraj and Raghunathan Ravikrishna
Sol-gel Synthesis of Porous Silica Using Polyaphron Templates

Jessica Hronich (Lafayette College), Karsten Thompson and Matthew Balhoff
The Flow of Cross-Linked Polymers in Complex Geometries: Resolving Prediction versus Observation

Wyatt Rush ( Illinois Institute of Technology), Kerry Dooley
Development and Testing of New Catalysts to Oxidize Alkenes to Aldehydes

David Schmerfeld (University of Pittsburg), F. Carl Knopf
Injection Molding of Carbonated Cements