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Furman Provost George Shields<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n Shields, who joined Furman in July of this year, is founder and director of the MERCURY consortium. He said the group\u2019s annual Conference in Undergraduate Computational Chemistry will move to Furman starting in July 2017.<\/p>\n The three-year grant, which will run through Aug. 31, 2019, is awarded through the NSF\u2019s Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI).\u00a0 The MERCURY researchers share computational resources and use the consortium as a venue to collaborate and increase the visibility of their work.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are excited the NSF has chosen to support the important research work of the MERCURY program and we are equally excited that the annual conference will be coming to Furman,\u201d Shields said.\u00a0 \u201cThe university will make an excellent host since it has one of the strongest programs in the physical sciences of any liberal arts school in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n Since its founding in 2001, MERCURY investigators have worked with nearly 600 students on research projects and published more than 230 papers.\u00a0 Seventy-five percent of the students have been female and minority students, and about half of the program\u2019s graduates have gone on to receive advanced degrees in STEM fields. MERCURY students have also won more than 50 national awards, including a Rhodes Scholarship, 10 Fulbright fellowships and eight Goldwater scholarships.<\/p>\n The annual national conference has been taking place on college campuses around the country since 2002.<\/p>\n \u201cThe conference allows undergraduates to present their work and to learn from experts in the field,\u201d Shields said.\u00a0 \u201cIt is equally valuable as a networking event for faculty working with undergraduates.\u201d<\/p>\n