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Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU)

Harold (Wick) Hatch (class of 2008)

I attended the Cornell Center for Materials Research 2007 REU.  My project was the simulation of type I methane hydrate using the fluctuating charge model offered by Professor Paulette Clancy in the department of chemical and biomolecular engineering.  Methane hydrates are ice-like crystal cages of water molecules with methane tried inside, and utilization of less than one percent of the methane trapped inside hydrates on the ocean shelves would double the United State’s natural gas resource base.  I gained practical experience in modifying a simulation program to benchmark the bulk hydrate melting point for a novel water model, investigate the growth and dissolution of seed crystals and conduct preliminary simulations in confinement.  The CCMR staff was very helpful, and Ithaca was a great place to spend my summer with other REU students and Prof. Clancy’s research group.

Ai Mau Nguyen

I worked at Texas A&M this past summer. Over the summer, I synthesized colloids of varying sizes and materials and cataloged my methods for future use by the team. I was also charged to design and run experiments involving the flow of colloidal dispersions in microfluidic devices. My main objective was to study the mixing in the microchannels due to shearing forces. I was able to learn more about colloids and their current and future applications.

Whitney Stoppel (class of 2008)

During summer 2007, I participated in a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) sponsored by the NSF at the University of Massachusetts Amherst with the Institute of Cellular Engineering and the Chemical Engineering Department.  I worked under Dr. Susan C. Roberts on a project regarding the production and accumulation of paclitaxel (Taxol® Bristol-Myers-Squibb) in Taxus sp. suspension cultures.  The motivation for this research was based on the need for a less expensive, environmentally friendly, and more efficient method for the production of paclitaxel.  My project explored the separation of plant cell aggregates into single cells using enzyme digestion.  The process of enzymatic digestion was optimized for the separation of cells into two subpopulations in order to further explore the accumulation of paclitaxel based on an individual cell’s location within the plant cell aggregate.  Results were analyzed using flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy. My poster is available online at: http://www.ecs.umass.edu/index.pl?id=3636&isa=Category&op=show

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