National Science Foundation awards chemistry department research grant

The chemistry department at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University was recently awarded a $42,500 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), which will be used to support chemistry undergraduate research during the summer of 2012. This is a one-year grant, with the likelihood of renewable funding at the same yearly level for an two additional years.

This project, "Use of Functionalized Dendrimers in Cascade Catalysis," is directed by Nicholas Jones, assistant professor of chemistry at CSB and SJU. Dendrimers are large spherical molecules, similar to Koosh balls, consisting of a series of branches around an inner core.  This work will promote multiple chemical reactions in one vessel.

The grant will allow Jones and two CSB and SJU undergraduate research students to conduct research at CSB and SJU and spend five weeks at Montana State University to work on preparation of functionalized dendrimers in Professor Mary Cloninger's laboratory at Montana State. 

Cloninger's group of undergraduate and graduate students have developed expertise in the area of functionalized dendrimers during their studies on how cells "talk" using sugar receptors. 

The two students will be chosen from a pool of applicants. Ideally, one will be a student who has completed their sophomore year, and one who has completed their junior year. 

The grant will also be used to support student travel to national American Chemical Society meetings to present their work.

 "This project will present two principle benefits to the students," Jones said. "They will develop skills in the area of synthetic chemistry and they will be immersed in a graduate level research group for half of a summer research program, allowing them hands-on access to specialized instrumentation."

With this most recent grant, the chemistry department has received over $1.2 million in grants from the NSF since 2009.

The NSF funds research and education in most fields of science and engineering through grants and cooperative agreements to more than 2,000 colleges, universities, K-12 school systems, businesses, informal science organizations and other research organizations throughout the United States. The foundation accounts for about one-fourth of federal support to academic institutions for basic research.