SUNRISE invites University community to student research showcase Aug. 5

The UND community is invited to attend the 8th annual SUNRISE Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates Program Poster Session from 10 a.m. to noon Thursday, Aug. 5, on the second floor of Harrington Hall.

Undergraduate students from all over the United States are mentored by SUNRISE faculty members from the UND departments of chemistry and chemical engineering.

This year’s participants are from California State Polytechnic University at Pomona, Concordia College, San Jose State University, Sitting Bull College, and UND.

In addition to spending ten weeks working on research related to energy production and environmental impact, the students participated in a series of activities designed to introduce them to graduate school, research methods, safety and ethical conduct. The group also toured the U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center in Grand Forks, the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences Mass Spectroscopy Lab and the UND Energy and Environmental Research Center.

The upcoming poster session is the culmination of their projects and gives students the opportunity to explain their work to the public in an informal setting. Light refreshments will be served. The event is free and open to the public.

SUNRISE stands for the Sustainable Energy Research and Supporting Education Initiative. The SUNRISE Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates Program is funded by the National Science Foundation with supplemental funding provided by the Department of Energy EPSCoR Infrastructure Improvement Program and the UND graduate school. The Principal Investigator is Evguenii Kozliak, professor of Chemistry.

Founded in 2004, SUNRISE is a student-centered, faculty-led research program at UND, North Dakota State University, and several other North Dakota universities and colleges. The mission of SUNRISE is to conduct research that contributes to solving complex energy-related problems, investigate the development of sustainable energy options and spur economic development and job-creation for North Dakota, increase UND and NDSU research competitiveness in sustainable energy, and produce graduates to develop and promote sustainable energy in North Dakota, the region, and the nation. All this is done within a unified, interdisciplinary program that translates fundamental research into commercial solutions.

For more information, contact Yun Ji, assistant professor, Chemical Engineering, poster session coordinator, 777-4456, yunji@mail.und.edu or Wayne Seames, director, North Dakota SUNRISE, 777-2958, wayneseames@mail.und.edu.