CURI Academic Year Student Researcher - Cruz-Reyes bei St. Olaf College

Job Title: CURI Academic Year Student Researcher

Classification: Student Employee (non-exempt)

Name and Address of Employer: St. Olaf College, 1520 St. Olaf Ave, Northfield, MN 55057

If the position requires the student to work off campus, provide the name and address here:

Department Name: CURI

Unit Number (5 digits): 16118

Length of Position: See Employment Authorization  

Contact Person/Supervisor: Faculty advisor

Pay Rate (Check One)  Standard Hourly Rate  x  Supervisory/Special Skills Hourly Rate

Description of the Position: (Purpose of the Position): Students work together with a faculty member on scholarly or artistic projects. 

Project Title: Iron oxide synthesis with various microplastics

Faculty Mentor: Maetzin Cruz-Reyes

Project Description: Iron oxides have robust synthesis methods to simulate naturally occurring oxides. This project would take a look at the effects microplastics have on the nucleation and growth of goethite and hematite, two of the most abundant iron oxides, and akageneite, a metastable iron oxide at various points in the synthesis methods. The first couple of weeks would be spent setting up lab space, going over methods, and synthesizing the minerals. Next would be to decide different points in the synthesis methods to introduce microplastics as well as which type of microplastics (primary or secondary, PLA/PE/PS) and concentrations. The following weeks would tackle each of the minerals with the various parameters chosen and characterizing the minerals. This project would expose students to materials chemistry and the expansive methods to characterize solid materials, some of which are available to us at St. Olaf and Carleton (SEM, XRD).

Please contact Prof. Cruz-Reyes ([email protected]) for more information or stop by her office (RNS 322)

Transferable Skills: Research and presentations.

Duties and Responsibilities: Each project has its own timing (number of hours per week and number of weeks), as determined by the individual faculty mentor. See the CURI Digital Olaf database for individual project descriptions and details.

Qualifications: (Education/Experience/Skills) A student interested in applying for the CURI academic year program must be enrolled as an on-campus St. Olaf student. There is no GPA requirement that must be met in order to apply for the program, but a student’s academic record will be considered during the selection process. Skills are dependent on individual projects.

If you don’t have a work award and select, No, to the application questions your application will be automatically rejected by the system. If you apply and are rejected please contact Erin Eltonga to resolve this for you.

Wage Range: $11.75-12.75

This job description is for general information purposes.  It is not intended to list all duties and responsibilities of the position.  This job description is subject to change at any time by St. Olaf College, with or without prior notice.