REU-INFEWS program: Results from Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Security Program

Abstract

Since 2017, Mississippi State University’s Department of Chemistry has hosted a 10-week summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, focused on research related to food, energy and water security topics. The goals of this program were to train students by providing intensive research experience, recruit minority and underrepresented students, and provide advising for future career goals. The program hosted a growing cohort of undergraduate students each summer, recruited from a pool of underrepresented students and those with limited research opportunities, and the pre- and post-program survey results covering three summers showed consistent self-reported growth among the student cohort in the skill sets that were focused on during the program. This manuscript discusses three years of the program’s success, from initial planning stages and recruitment to results, as well as discussing the value of each component of the program’s requirements.