Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU)
SHyNE REU Program
SHyNE Resource has developed a unique REU program providing facilities‐focused research projects for four undergraduate students (50% from underrepresented minority groups). Research projects are developed in close collaboration between SHyNE facility staff and Northwestern faculty. This combination of a traditional REU research experience with the hands‐on instrumentation focus provides an opportunity for students to learn new skills and enrich their experience.
2021 REU mentors Stephanie Ribet and Ben Shindel, and REU student Temiloluwa Akande, view some of the sponges Temi synthesized on the Hitachi S-3400 Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) in an effort to establish structure-property-processing relationships.
Summer 2025 REU Program
Applications are now closed!
Letter of Recommendation Deadline:
February 7, 2025
* Undergraduate students must be U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, or U.S. permanent residents to participate.
View Project Descriptions
- Program Dates: June 16, 2025 – August 9, 2025
- 9-week research experience
- An individual-focused nanotechnology project with training & support
- A stipend of $5,750
- Housing on campus
- Meal Plan provided
- Paid travel or travel allowance
- Open to undergraduates who have not graduated by August 2025
For questions, please contact: shyne@northwestern.edu
2024 REU Program
2024 SHyNE REU Program Students
- Beck Lindholm (Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO)
Project title: “Exploring the Immunostimulatory Effects of Gold-SNA Through Variable DNA Lengths ” - Sadie Meyer (Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY)
Project title: “Effects of the Presence of Oxygen on the Morphology and Ultrastructure of Mitochondria in Yeast Cells” - Himani Mishra (Cornell University, Ithaca, NY)
Project title: “Building Generative Machine Learning Models to Analyze Microscope Images of Material Systems” - Jose Montelongo (Elmhurst University, Elmhurst, IL)
Project title: “Atomic-Scale Imaging of Hydrogen in Metals Using Atom Probe Tomography” - Yusuke Morita (Tohoku University, Japan)
Project title: “Microstructural characterization of the calcite mineral” - Ifeoluwatobi Onasany (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC)
Project title: “Investigating the effects of competing contaminants and pH on the performance of sponge-based nanocomposite for environmental remediation” - Elizabeth Peng (Princeton University, Princeton, NJ)
Project title: “Spatial Resolution Improvements using Collimation Methods and their Applications” - Ryan Woolaver (The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA)
Project title: “Particulate Reduction in Pulsed Laser Deposition”
2023 REU Program
2023 SHyNE REU Program Students
2023 REU Students
- Avani Marmer (Haverford College)
- Ike Zhang (Johns Hopkins University, Whiting School of Engineering)
- Edward De La Uz (Florida Atlantic University-Charles E. Schmidt College of Science)
- Tanvi Panchumarthy (The University of Texas at Austin)
- Maggie Yang (Amherst College)
(also included: Professor Vinayak P. Dravid and REU Technical Manager, Tirzah Abbott)
2022 REU Program
2022 SHyNE REU Program Students
2022 REU Students
- Stephanie Wang (Case Western Reserve University)
- Ahmad Madhwala (The Ohio State University)
- Ryan Talusan (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
- Hasan Al Saeedi (Oakton Community College)
- Wesley Chiu (University of Arizona)
2021 REU Program
2021 SHyNE REU Program Students
2021 REU Students
- Emily Clinkscales (Beloit College, WI))
- Temiloluwa Akande (Howard University, Wash D.C.)
- Tarek Zaki (Northwestern, IL)
- Jeffrey Gao (Messiah College, PA)
- Ryan O’Connor (Johns Hopkins, MD)
2019 REU Program
2019 SHyNE REU Program Students
2019 REU Students
- Denise Hernandez (Claremont McKenna College)
- Connor Horn (Cornell University)
- Ryan Mbagna Nanko (University of Maryland, Baltimore County)
- Vivian Shi (Bard College at Simon’s Rock)
2018 REU Program
2018 SHyNE REU Program Students
2018 REU Students
- Steve Rebollo
- Kavya Anjur
- Jillian Rix