The goal of Project SEED is to help expand the career outlook of economically disadvantaged students by placing talented, disadvantaged high school students in academic, industrial, and government research laboratories for 8-10 weeks during the summer to experience "hands-on" research. Each student completes a chemical research project under the supervision of a scientist/mentor (called a preceptor) and receives an educational award. The students receive individual instruction under the direct supervision of scientists/preceptors in the laboratory. The preceptors serve as role models and encourage the students to learn about careers in chemistry.

This year the following mentors and projects were funded:

David L. Cedeno, Assistant Professor, "Quantitative Modeling of Metal-Olefin Bond Strengths"
Marjorie Jones, Professor, "Measurement of Protein from Leishmania Following Incubation with Porphyrin Derivatives"
Craig McLauchlan, Assistant Professor, "Synthesis and Characterization of Vanadium Phosphonates"
Christopher Hamaker, Assistant Professor, "Synthesis and Coordination Chemistry of Novel N-S Ligands" 

Over the past 2 years, six ISU faculty have mentored eleven high school students. Research conducted by Julian Giles, a Project SEED student from Summer of 2004, was published in Acta Crystallographica Section E. Nan Lin, a 2003 Project SEED student, was the recipient of the Bader Project SEED College Scholarship, through the ACS. Lin was one of the 45 nationwide winners chosen for this $5,000 scholarship that can be used at a university of her choice. The scholarship allowed her to enroll at Bradley University right after finishing high school.