Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Notre Dame and Elsewhere

Fall 2002

Undergraduate students interested in participating in scientific research at Notre Dame are encouraged to begin this research as early as possible. Research may be conducted during the academic year and/or during the summer. Notre Dame students may also apply for admission into various federally-funded research programs during the summer that are sponsored by a number of universities nationwide. Examples of the latter are the well-known Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. Information about this and related programs can be obtained by contacting your academic advisor, talking with department faculty, and/or searching the Internet. Summer research support may also be available in individual research laboratories at Notre Dame and at other universities through federally funded research grants.

The present discussion focuses solely on research opportunities within the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry during the academic year (it should be noted that similar programs exist in other departments on campus, e.g., Biological Sciences, Physics, etc.). Students interested in learning about these opportunities should obtain a booklet from Ms. Amanda Huerta (132D Nieuwland Science Hall; 631-4040; Amanda.M.Huerta.5@nd.edu) in which projects available in faculty research laboratories are described. Having read this booklet, you then make arrangements to meet specific faculty who have projects of interest to you. This can be done by contacting these faculty via phone or email. You may wish to interview several faculty before making your decision; these meetings are intended to help you decide whether a specific project interests you, since faculty will spend time describing the work and its relevance/importance. When you make your decision, you notify the faculty member and he/she will confirm his/her commitment to having you join his/her research group. You then obtain an authorization number to register for CHEM 499R (undergraduate research) from Ms. Huerta. The number of credits depends on the amount of time you plan to commit to research per week (one afternoon translates into ~1 credit hour) and must be agreed upon with your advisor before enrollment. All of this needs to be done within the first week of the semester during which the research is to be conducted; registration for CHEM 499R after that time will not be possible. You need to register for CHEM 499R for each semester you plan to do research.

The commitment you make to a faculty member to conduct undergraduate research is a serious one. If you start your studies as a freshman or sophomore, and remain in the same laboratory for your entire time at Notre Dame, you likely will complete a significant amount of original work to warrant publication of your findings. In addition to the experience itself, publication is a major objective of undergraduate research, should be viewed as a key motivation for the research, and is highly encouraged.

The booklet provided by Ms. Huerta describes the key course requirements/expectations for students enrolled in CHEM 499R. This document should be consulted for these details.

You are not required to remain in one laboratory for your entire time at Notre Dame, but most labs will require at least a 2-year commitment, because it takes time for new people to gain sufficient knowledge of and insight into a problem before they can conduct new and independent work. For this reason, it is important to consider all projects carefully before making your decision, since you will not have the option of freely moving between labs from one semester to the next.

If you have any questions, please contact me. I would be happy to discuss these and other research opportunities in more detail.

Professor Serianni