Department of Polymer Science

The summer 2005 program consisted of 12 student interns from the following universities: Baldwin-Wallace College, Benedictine College, MIT, Mount Union College, Ohio University, Texas A&M University, University of Akron, University of Michigan, University of Southern Mississippi, Vanderbilt University, and Youngstown State University.

Majors: Biochemistry, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Mathematics or Polymer Science

"The orientation was very informative and gave me a good foundation on which to begin, expectations were laid out, introductions were made and tour of the building and pertinent parts of campus made me feel comfortable and welcome."

"Overall, I enjoyed the program a lot. I think Dr. Gujrati contributed to this quite a bit- although the program as a whole I thought was very worthwhile as well."

"I enjoyed the trips to NASA and Advanced Elastomers the most. I also enjoyed the concert at Blossom."

"Trips taken offered great insight into what can be accomplished in this field and the benefits of attending graduate school, they gave me a sense empowerment, made me feel as if I could really make great accomplishments!"

"Dr. Mattice was a great research mentor. He provided a challenging but very rewarding project."

"Dr. Foster is probably the most methodical and efficient man I've ever met. I'd recommend him, I think I learned a lot."

"I really enjoyed visiting Spectra, as it was a small company and we really got to see what was going on and what specific chemistry they were using to build a business."

"I would highly recommend Dr. Newkome and his group. I learned an immeasurable amount from the group."

"I had a great time learning from Dr. Brittain and would highly recommend him for future students. He has continued to help me with recommendations and anything that he can do for me, which is awesome."

"The weekly gatherings were helpful. I especially enjoyed the trip to NASA, although all the trips I think were worthwhile."

"My mentor, Dr. Pugh, served a great example to show what women can achieve in science, it is inspiring to be guided by such an accomplished scientist and I continue to enjoy working with Dr. Pugh."

"I thought that the symposium at the end of the conference was a good time to see what other areas of research exist and also it was a great time to network with people that will be the leaders of my field."

"I think the symposium at the end of the summer was a good experience in presenting scientific work and made it possible to not just say 'I conducted research', but say 'I conducted research and presented the results...', which I think greatly enhanced the experience."

"I had a great time and learned a lot from my time at Akron. I think that the only thing that I would change would be to require people to live in the dorms. I just saw that it took about the whole summer to actually start hanging out with the people that were living at home and I really think that they missed part of the experience of an REU."

"The coordination with the Math REU students was a really good idea. I also liked the idea of pairing Math kids with Polymer kids for the suites."