Vol. 19, No. 26 |
April 6, 2000 |
Faculty create cooperative
multisite research program
| Under a multisite program generated by four UD professors of chemistry and biochemistry, graduate students from three universities now can complete extended research at both academic and industrial laboratories.
The recently renewed $450,000 grant from National Science Foundation and the DuPont Co. makes it possible for chemistry graduate students and postdoctoral students from the University of Delaware, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland to complete a series of laboratory rotations among the three institutions and an extended rotation with DuPont Central Research. “The students in the program perform an extended research project at an industrial site, giving them an enhanced skill set upon graduation,” said Murray V. Johnston, chemistry and biochemistry. Johnston and his colleagues Burnaby Munson, Douglas Ridge and Jean Futrell, professor emeritus of chemistry and biochemistry and currently director of the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., proposed the multisite research program, which received its initial funding in 1997. “The first two years are quite different from a conventional Ph.D. program,” Johnston said. “In the first year, students complete rotations in academic labs at any of the three academic institutions. At an intersession (winter or summer), a UD student will complete short-term study at Hopkins and Maryland, and then in the second year perform a long-term rotation at DuPont.” The graduate students, who are supported by full research scholarships, are expected to complete their theses on some aspect of mass spectrometry over the third and fourth years. Mentoring is shared by the academic and industrial researchers. Postdoctoral students, who split their time between academic and industrial research groups, have a two-year appointment. Currently, eight UD graduate students are involved in the program. The University of Maryland has two students and Johns Hopkins has one. “A postdoctoral student who recently completed a two year stint in the program received seven offers of employment,” Johnston said. An analytical tool used by the semiconductor, nuclear, petroleum, polymer and pharmaceutical industries, mass spectrometry is used to identify elements, isotopes and molecules by tracking their ions or charged particles. –Cornelia Weil |