Preston T. Snee

Email Address: sneep@uic.edu
College: Liberal Arts and Sciences Department: Chemistry
Title: Associate Professor
Office: 4123 SES Phone: 3-2566
Participating in the Chancellor’s Undergraduate Research Awards program: Yes

Research Interest:
There are three open projects for undergrads in my lab. One is to prepare metal phosphide nanomaterials that are catalysts that clean contaminants out of oil feedstock so that gas products are produced much more cleanly. This project entails work in the wet lab handling air sensitive chemicals. One will learn quite a bit about chemical synthesis as it applies to inorganic materials.
Another project is fully computational, is as suitable for a math wiz. The project is to perform calculations on the electronic structure of solid state nanomaterials. The student will be well guided on how to do these calculations.
Last, there is a highly non-traditional project for a business or sociology (or similar) major. My group is attempting to gather data on science funding to help with crafting US science policy. Topics include how many faculty should be in the STEM discipline in the US? The effort will require massive data collection and analyses. The work can also be done completely by remote. All the resources are already present to assist the undergrad with this research. The PI (Snee) has an MBA from UIC and can assist the student with financial analyses.

Minimum time commitment in hours per week: 8

Qualifications of a Student:
Minimum GPA: 3.2
Preferred major: Any. The collection and analyses of massive amounts of data is common in social and business science.

Brief Summary of what is expected from the student:
Depends on the research project; send an inquiry and we will see.

Return to Chemistry list

Return to Departments list