Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF)
Purpose
To provide funding for summer research opportunities for outstanding undergraduate organic chemistry students attending colleges and universities in the United States.
Nature
These competitive fellowships ($6,000) are awarded on the merits of students’ research proposals, academic records, faculty recommendations and their passion for laboratory science. SURF fellowships will provide support for undergraduates in organic chemistry to carry out research at their respective colleges/universities in the summer between their junior and senior year. In addition, the program will provide financial support to enable recipients to visit an industrial campus in the fall for a dinner, award session, scientific talks, a tour of the campus and a poster session, where the results of the summer research investigations would be presented. Information on the program and application forms are available below.
History
The program was established in 2009. The complete list of Previous DOC SURF Awardees is available
Support
Donations from companies and individuals for the Organic Division’s SURF Program is strongly encouraged.
Please contact Michelle Tran-Dubé, Michael Ellis, and Katelyn Billings make an inquiry on how to support this rewarding program.
2022 Sponsors:
Selection Criteria:
Fellowship recipients will be selected by an Advisory Committee using the following criteria:
- Demonstrated interest and talent of the student in organic chemistry
- Merit and feasibility of the research project
- Commitment of the faculty mentor to support the student in his/her work
- Academic record, particularly in organic chemistry and related sciences.
- Demonstrated importance of the award in facilitating the personal and career plans of the nominee.
- A Faculty research mentor may not have two awardees within a three year period
Nomination process
Nominations from women and minorities who are typically under-represented in chemistry are especially encouraged.
The faculty mentor (who must be a member of the Organic Division) must submit the completed SURF Application and the requested documents through the online application form as a single PDF file consisting of the following items in the following order:
- The completed “Student Application Cover Sheet” (page 1 of the SURF Application as a docx file)
- A statement from the nominee describing the importance of this opportunity to his/her personal and career plans (typically 1-2 paragraphs). Indicate how a summer research project fits into your long-range plans. Provide any background about yourself and/or your personal or professional goals that you would like us to know.
- A description of the proposed research project, authored by the student in collaboration with the faculty mentor (typically 2-5 pages). Describe the project you propose to undertake next summer. Describe your background that has prepared you to do this work and your proposed methodology. Provide as much detail as possible.
- An unofficial transcript (with overall GPA) of the nominee and a list of courses to be taken during the rest of the current application year.
- The completed “Faculty Mentor Cover Sheet” (page 2 of the SURF Application as a docx file) – A Faculty mentor may not have two awardees within a three year period
- A letter of recommendation from the faculty mentor on the qualifications of the nominee to carry out the project successfully.
- The completed “Department Chair/Head Cover Sheet” (page 3 of the SURF Application as a docx file)
- A brief letter from the Department Chair indicating that the student is a departmental nominee (there may be no more than 2 nominees per department, and no more than 1 nominee per research group) and that the department will provide the necessary equipment, space and administrative support to the project. In the event the faculty mentor is also the department chair, then the faculty member’s immediate supervisor should complete this form.
Student nominees should be U.S. citizens or permanent resident visa holders at the time of application. Applications from minorities are especially encouraged. This program targets current Juniors and they will be given preference. While two nominations are allowed per department, preference will be given to spreading awards out across different schools. Student may not hold a DOC Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship concomitantly with a similar fellowship from another source. The student nominees are required to be members of the ACS and the Organic Division (their ACS number will be requested). Information on becoming a member of the Division can be found here. Please be sure the nominated students do not have fall travel/study commitments (i.e. study abroad) that conflict with the poster session, scheduled for September/October.
Applications are to be submitted by the Faculty Mentor who must be an Organic Division Member as a single PDF file (named using the format: StudentNominee’sLast Name_First Name-SURF.pdf i.e. Smith_Jane-SURF.pdf) through this online form SURF
Application Deadline is Wednesday, February 15, 2023.
Applications submitted late, via mechanisms other than the online form, or out of order (as described above) will be disqualified.
Announcement of the awards is typically made in March.
Questions regarding the program should be directed to Michelle Tran-Dubé, Michael Ellis, and Katelyn Billings
2022 Students
Susanna Angles
School: Illinois State University
Mentor: Andy Mitchell
Research: Applications of [5+2] Cycloadditions Toward Cleavable Tethers
Sponsor: Pfizer/Janssen
Reece Carew-Lyons
School: Bryn Mawr College
Mentor: Bill Malachowski
Research: Enantioselective Total Synthesis of Cephanolide B via Birch-Heck sequence
Sponsor: GSK
Catherine Chiang
School: Scripps College
Mentor: Anna Wenzel
Research: Silver-catalyzed Friedel-Crafts Reaction
Sponsor: Pfizer
Damien Cooper
School: University of Southern Mississippi
Mentor: Matthew Donahue
Research: Investigation of N-Sulfonyliminium Ion Triggered aza-Prins Cyclizations for the Synthesis of Nitrogen Heterocycles
Sponsor: Merck
Evan Ferry
School: University of Michigan
Mentor: Corinna Schindler
Research: A Substrate Dependent Lewis Acidity Scale for Carbonyl-Olefin Metathesis
Sponsor: Morphic/Snapdragon
Hannah Ford
School: College of Holy Cross
Mentor: Kevin Quinn
Research: Synthesis of the 2,6-trans-tetrahydropyran natural product diospongin B
Sponsor: Vertex
Anjali Gurajapu
School: University of California Berkeley
Mentor: Thomas Maimone
Research: A Shapeshifting Strategy Toward the Synthesis of Rugulosone
Sponsor: Merck
Lauren Harstad
School: Arizona State University
Mentor: Kyle Biegasiewicz
Research: Vanadium-Dependent Haloperoxidases for Selective Biocatalytic Halooxycyclization Reactions
Sponsor: Takeda
Daniel Hubin
School: Kansas State University
Mentor: Socrates Munoz
Research: Copper-Catalyzed Difluoroacylation and C(sp3 )–H Fluorination Reactions
Sponsor: BioPharmaWorks
Sebastian Ibarraran
School: Yale University
Mentor: Timothy Newhouse
Research: A Neural Network to Predict Enantioselectivity for the Negishi Cross-Coupling of Tetra-substitued Biaryls
Sponsor: Lilly
Nikki Keramati
School: University of Michigan
Mentor: David Sherman
Research: Isolation and Structural Diversification of Novel Metabolite for Further Insight into Rare Biocatalytic Cope Rearrangement and Synthesis of Indole Alkaloid Natural Products
Sponsor: BMS
Madison Maiorano
School: Stonehill College
Mentor: Louis Liotta
Research: The Synthesis of the Pentahydroxylated Pyrrolidine Casuarine and Seven of its Stereoisomers from D-Glucopyranoside
Sponsor: Pfizer
Mark Mouch
School: University of San Diego
Mentor: Timothy Clark
Research: Oxidative Homocoupling of Borylated Aryl Phosphonates
Sponsor: Pfizer
Isabelle Petrucci
School: University of Vermont
Mentor: Matthias Brewer
Research: Achieving Enantioselective Control over a Conjugate Addition of Enoxy Silane and Indole Carbon Nucleophiles to Vinyl Diazoniums
Sponsor: Biohaven
Nathan Tang
School: Northeastern University
Mentor: Roman Manetsch
Research: Studies toward the Divergent Total Synthesis of Phlegmadines B and C via a Strategic 1,2 Carbonyl Transposition
Sponsor: BMS
Jason Wu
School: Boston College
Mentor: Shih-Yuan Liu
Research: A Modular Approach to Furnish 1,2-Azaborines
Sponsor: Pfizer
Testimonials
2022 SURF Awardee-Nathan Tang
Northeastern University
Mentor: Roman Manetsch
Sponsor: BMS
Due to the fellowship’s selective nature, everyone we engaged with during the dinner and poster session was able to dedicate their attention to meeting us as people and offering advice and wisdom from their accomplished careers. It was inspiring to be around so many people who spoke the language of chemistry and cared about aiding the development of the next generation of organic chemists. From the mentor I received through my industry sponsor to the tours of industrial technology, the only wish I had is that we could have stayed together longer!
2022 SURF Awardee-Daniel Hubin
Kansas State University
Mentor: Socrates Munoz
Sponsor: BioPharmaWorks
Throughout the summer, the opportunities to meet with likeminded peers and professional chemists alike are numerous. Getting to take part in conversations with these people throughout the summer makes the research so much more fun and fulfilling. Presenting my research at the end of the summer was by far my favorite part of the fellowship. Everyone who is a part of SURF truly cares about the research we did over the summer and their interest is obvious through their insightful questions and insight. The presentation and poster session were opportunities to actually engage in discussion with very smart and inquisitive chemists, and I learned so much through those presentations alone.
It is humbling to be a part of such a group of talented and smart people and I appreciate the SURF committee for giving me the opportunity to do so.