Iona College recently announced that its chemistry department was awarded $20,000 from the National Science Foundation that will go toward an international research project.
The project, titled “RUI: Microdroplet Interface Chemistry-Fundamental Studies of Self-Assembled Structures at the Liquid/Liquid Interface,” involves collaboration with the University of Tokyo, where Iona undergraduate students will visit and serve as student researchers beginning this summer. They will study cellular membrane function from a chemical perspective.
The project is under the supervision of department chairwoman and chemistry professor Sunghee Lee. In a statement, Iona, a predominantly undergraduate institution, said it hopes the project will impact future career pathways in science for its undergraduate students. The first student researcher, undergraduate biochemistry major Peter J. Milianta, will study in Tokyo this summer.
In a statement, Lee said, “I am proud that Peter will be the first of my students to be spending a month in the labs of this globally prestigious scientific team in Tokyo, and know that it will be just the beginning of a long and fruitful research collaboration that will benefit not only Peter but the greater Iona community and the world’s scientific enterprise.”
