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RODNEY PRIESTLEY: Research is exciting
because it's cutting edge.
And this is the type of excitement
that we're trying to share with the REU students
when they come in to campus, is that, hey, look,
you're not just doing research, you're actually doing something
that no one's ever done before.
CRAIG ARNOLD: But they all get this unique Princeton
experience.
We have resources that rival any resources anywhere.
And to be able to share with those kinds of students
what I'm able to do today is very meaningful for me.
RODNEY PRIESTLEY: REU itself stands for Research Experience
for Undergraduates.
It's an NSF-supported program that
allows us to bring upwards to 10 to 20 students to campus
during the summertime to undertake research along
with a faculty adviser.
We very often recruit students from institutions
that are not Ph.D. research institutions
and so students may not have the opportunity
to do research at the level that we're offering them
through the Princeton REU program.
And so it gives them the opportunity
to actually decide and to learn whether or not
academic research is actually right for them.
ILANA KRAUSE: Currently, I attend the University
of Florida and I'm majoring in materials science
and engineering.
So here at Princeton, I'm working
with Dr. Richard Register on a project
about catalytic hydrogenation.
Catalytic hydrogenation ends up altering
the thermal properties.
And so you can see it being applied
to the pharmaceutical industry, the food industry, in oil,
and it really has a potential to impact people's lives
on a day-to-day basis.
JON WILSON: My main interest in research
is developing technologies for renewable energy
like solar cells and new battery chemistries
to store that energy.
So I'm working on researching lithium ion batteries here
with Dr. Arnold.
At Princeton there's a lot more equipment available to me
and also the ratio of professors to students
seems to be quite a bit higher.
And so you get more availability for one-on-one interaction
here.
LEE HAMPTON: I'm working with a polymer that
is actually very prevalent in a lot of household items.
And what I'm doing is I'm trying to alter
physical properties without chemically degrading it.
You can't say you're an expert or you know that much.
It's just the opportunity to be in the environment
and be in the atmosphere with all these other guys who've
been working on this like three, four, five years
and see how far they've come in their research.
And knowing that some of their work
could very well be published.
And talking with professors who actually
have published research and stuff like that -- it's special.
CRAIG ARNOLD: You know, for me when
I went to graduate school coming out of a small school,
having a little bit of research experience under my belt
really gave me a lot of confidence, a lot of ability,
to step right in and be able to, in a sense,
compete with everyone else, to be
at the same level as everyone else.
And so these little experiences like that, I think,
can be very valuable.
And I really appreciate to be in a position
where I can share that with others.
ILANA KRAUSE: The experience that I've
had so far at Princeton has blown my expectations away.
Being on the brink of discovery and being
able to really just try new things
and do really interesting experiments.
LEE HAMPTON: The more you talk to people
and the more you get around, the more you
understand that everything is kind of interconnected.
And even though someone else is focusing
on something completely different, nine times out of 10
they're doing something, there's a certain aspect
in their research that could very well pertain to yours.
ILANA KRAUSE: You're able to engage
with other students in the REU program
in an intellectual environment and I
think that's a really, really rewarding thing
that not all REU programs have.
RODNEY PRIESTLEY: And so we're hoping
that they enjoy the program, they meet new friends,
they do interesting and exciting new science,
they learn a lot about their research in their new areas,
and they not only get excited about the science, but also the
in the University and the possibility of coming
back here in a few years as graduate students.
CRAIG ARNOLD: I'm really looking for them to come out of it
and say, 'Wow, I loved this!
I want to do more of this.’
And I want them to think that, 'Hey, wait a minute,
you know, I could do this.
I could see myself doing research.
I could see myself being involved in science.’
And for some of these students, they never
thought of that before.
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