Timing and Location

Dates: July 14th - July 20th 2024

• Programming will begin the evening of Sunday, July 14th

• Teams can choose to leave the evening of Friday, July 19th, or join us for a long-held campus tradition, The River Concert Series, and depart Saturday, July 20th

Location: St. Mary's College of Maryland (SMCM)

• About 2 hours south of Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD

• Waterfront campus

• Near Historic St. Mary's City

Timeline of Events

Below is the general timeline of events. These are subject to change based on cohort needs, but should provide a general idea of the format of the Summer Institute. A welcome dinner will also take place on Sunday evening, prior to the Summer Institute.

Getting to St. Mary's, MD

• Transportation to St. Mary's College of Maryland will be provided to all team members (2-3 faculty/instructors/staff and 1 TA) as needed

• This support will include airfare and/or mileage appropriate to the distance of the participants' home institution (based on budget limits)  

  • Airport service will include DCA (Reagan National) and BWI (Baltimore) 

• Travel will be coordinated by the CLC Innovators Program Coordinator (Sanders)

  • By centralizing travel planning, the coordinator will be able provide ground transport to and from airports when possible

Housing and Dinning 

Participants will be housed at St. Mary's College of Maryland with most meals covered: arrival on July 14th and departure on July 19th (evening) or 20th (morning)

Suite Housing

All CLC Summer Institute participants will be housed in SMCM's Waring Commons Suites.

• • Suites will house the entire institutional team. 

  • Each suite consists of several single-occupancy bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a large common area.

  • We also have one-level suites that are ADA accessible (available by request before the start of the Summer Institute).

  • Standard furnishings for each resident in Waring Commons suites include twin bed with extra-long mattress, desk, chair, one dresser, and one wardrobe or closet. In addition, each common area includes a sofa, coffee table, upholstered chairs, and a trestle table with chairs. Note: suites do not have individual kitchens.

  • Special suite amenities include:

    • Community Kitchen

    • Furnished Living Room

    • Grassy areas for leisure and recreation

    • Outdoor Fire Pit

Dining

Food will be provided for the entirety of the Summer Institute via on-site catering and/or dining hall options depending on the daily activities.  For more inforamtion about the food options at SMCM please go to the Bon Appetite website. A few other points about food:

• Accommodations will be made for food allergies and/or preferences

• A few additional food options (dinner on your own) will happen throughout the week including (subject to change):

  • An optional evening visit to Washington, DC where participants can purchase dinner at one of the many area restaurants

  • Friday evening food trucks will be on campus for the long-held campus tradition, The River Concert Series. Those staying through Friday evening can either dine at the dining hall or purchase their own food from one of the many food truck selections!

TA Support 

Teams must include 1 teaching assistant (student laboratory assistant)

• • TAs can be undergraduate or graduate students depending on the institutional context of the team

  • TAs will be compensated out of the project grant for their work during the summer ($3,000 stipend*) and for implementation support during one semester of the year following the Summer Institute ($1,700 stipend*). 

  • The job description for this student laboratory assistant position (TA) can be found in the linked document. Students from each institutional team that are selected for this position will receive HR paperwork to complete.  

*See additional notes about student stipends in the job description.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What days should I travel?

You should arrive at St. Mary’s College of Maryland on Sunday, July 14th, 2024 before the 5:00pm Welcome Dinner. You will be able to leave campus during the afternoon/evening of Friday, July 19th, 2024 or anytime on Saturday, July 20th, 2024 by 5:00pm.    

How do I get to campus?

If you are flying to Washington, DC, Baltimore, MD, or arriving by bus or train to these cities, we will provide transportation from the airport/bus/train station to St. Mary’s College. We will coordinate college van/shuttle services for individual Summer Institute participants to these airports/stations as needed.   

What are my campus parking options?

If you are driving to the Summer Institute, you will be able to park in the parking lots right next to the Summer Institute housing complex (Waring Commons). Summer campus parking is free with no visitor parking passes required, but be sure to avoid designated disability access and utility vehicle spaces that require special parking passes. You will be able to park in most student, faculty, and staff designated parking lots on campus, but avoid named (reserved) parking spots. The college’s Office of Public Safety (https://www.smcm.edu/publicsafety/) manage campus parking services, including issuing parking passes and citations.    

How will travel assistance be provided?

The CLC Innovators Program will provide travel assistance to Summer Institute participants as either vehicle mileage reimbursements (with cost limits), pre-paid flight/train/bus services through the college’s travel agent(s), commercial taxi/shuttle/ride-sharing services reimbursements (with cost limits), or a combination of these methods based on program budget limits for providing travel assistance for participants. Be sure to save all your original receipts to submit for reimbursement. Most meals during the Summer Institute will be directly provided, but Summer Institute participants will be responsible for their own meals during a few excursions/events and meals during travel days. They will receive, and must complete, additional paperwork for travel assistance to comply with college travel and business service policies.     

Are bed linens, towels, and other toiletries provided?

Participants in the Summer Institute should bring their own towels and toiletries, including face, hand, and bath towels and personal grooming items such as soap, shower gel, shampoo/conditioner, toothbrush, and toothpaste.  

Participants are encouraged to bring their own bed linens (for XL twin size mattresses) if they have special needs beyond the light bed linens that will be provided through our Beantown Bedding vendor. One standard pillow will also be provided to each participant, but feel free to bring your own for additional comfort. The Beantown Bedding linens are eco-disposable and laundry-free XL Twin Sheet Sets that include 1 flat sheet, 1 fitted sheet, and 1 pillow case in each set. We are also providing you a light blanket from this vendor. These are plant-based products that are biodegradable and they can be used for 1-2 weeks. You can learn more about them using the links below.

https://www.beantownbedding.com/collections/wholesale-orders/products/laundry-free-linens-case 

https://www.beantownbedding.com/collections/wholesale-orders/products/eco-disposable-blanket-case 

Do note that there will be designated times for shuttle/car runs to local stores if there are personal items that participants need to purchase. These stores include Target, JCPenney, Belk, and CVS. Pillows can be purchased at some of these stores locally, but XL twin size sheet sets and blankets are usually only available during back-to-school sales in August, so if you want to purchase your own XL twin sheet set and blanket from a different company online, please do so before the summer institute and bring them with you. Summers are usually hot on campus in July (81F - 89F), thus the light bed linens from Beantown Bedding are often used by the college for summer programs. However, feel free to bring your own bed linens for additional comfort, especially if you want a bed comforter instead of a light blanket, or if you need a hypoallergenic pillow.      

Laboratory Support

In the afternoons each day during the Summer Institute, teams will work to practice and troubleshoot the laboratory methods. Each team will be assigned a teaching lab location equipped with the materials/chemicals, equipment, glassware, and waste storage needed for their specific laboratory (this information will be collected from teams prior to the Summer Institute). The following sections provide information about the SMCM laboratory spaces, which may assist teams in identifying the laboratory project they wish to develop.

Laboratory Spaces

There are 4 main teaching laboratories in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry:

• General Chemistry Lab (capacity 24); fumehoods available

• Organic Chemistry Lab (capacity 16) and attached NMR Room; fumehoods available

• Physical Chemistry Laboratory (capacity 16) and attached Advanced Instrument Room; limited fumehoods

• Biochemistry Laboratory (capacity 16) and attached Tissue Culture Room; limited fumehoods

There are 2 specialized  instrumentation laboratories:

• Synthesis Lab

• Measurement Lab

Specialized instruments and equipment in faculty laboratories may be available with pre-approval.    

Materials and Chemicals

Chemicals and materials necessary to run the team's laboratory methods will be provided (within reason; we have a budget to adhere to after all!). We will work with teams to identify an exhaustive list of the supplies they will need to effectively troubleshoot their procedures.

• • Common chemicals

  • Common glassware

  • Specialty chemicals/glassware will be purchased, when possible, on a case by case basis

  • Gas supplies - ordered from a regional supplier 

Instrumentation

The SMCM Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has a long list of instrumentation that will be available to CLC Innovators. Again,  we will work with teams to identify an exhaustive list of the instruments they will/may need to effectively troubleshoot their procedures. The list of instrumentation housed at SMCM includes (if something is not on this list that you would need, please reach out to co-PI Dan Chase at dtchase@smcm.edu to discuss possibilities):

• JEOL JNM-ECZ400R 400 MHz NMR Spectrometer

• Cary 100 UV-Vis Spectrophotometer

• Jasco 1500 CD Spectrometer with accessories for temperature control, CD of Solid Samples, and magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) measurements

• PTI HORIBA Quantamaster 8000 Spectrofluorometer with NIR and KSPHERE Quantum Yield Accessories

• Ametek SpectroMIDEX X–Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer

• Bruker D8 ADVANCE ECO Powder X–Ray Diffractometer

• Thermo–Nicolet 6700 FTIR with Specac ATR cell and Quantitative Liquid–State Accessories

• Thermo–Nicolet iN10 MX FTIR Miscroscope with Computer Controlled Stage

• Jasco 4200 FTIR with  ATR Accessory

• HORIBA XploRA Plus Dual–Laser Confocal Raman Microscope

• MBRAUN UniLab Glovebox

• Vigor GO Standard 1200 Glovebox

• Vigor SciLab Glovebox

• Perkin Elmer AA Spectrometer with Graphite  Furnace 

• HP Agilent 7890A Gas Chromatograph

• TA Instruments SDTQ600 TGA / DSC with Thermo–Fisher TGA–IR  Accessory

• TA Instruments Q5000 SA Water Adsorption Analyzer

• Syngene GBox Chemi XX9 High Resolution Imaging System

• DeNovix CellDrop Cell Counter

• Implen Nanophotometer

• Raman Spectrometer

• Teledyne CombiFlash Rf 150 System

• Thermo Labsystems Multskan Ascent Microplate Reader

• Anton Paar Monowave 50 Synthesis Reactor

• Anton Paar Monowave 200 Synthesis Reactor

• Johnson Matthey Magnetic Susceptibility Balance

• Sorvall Legend RT Centrifuge 

• Sorvall ST 40 Refrigerated Centrifuge 

• Ecopia HMS-3000 Hall Measurement System

• Oriel Instruments LCS-100 Solar Simulator

• FUJIFILM Dimatix Materials Printer DMP-2850

• NanoSurf NiaoAFM Atomic Force Microscope

• Sonicator

• CO2 Incubator

• Biosafety Cabinet

• Eppendorf 5430 Refrigerated Microcentrifuge

• Varioskan LUX Multimode Microplate Reader

Common Equipment

• Portable UV/Vis Spectrometers 

• pH Meters

• Water Baths

• Analytical Balances 

• Top Loader Balances

• Diaphram Vacum Pumps

• Speed Vacum Apparatus 

• Vortex Mixers

• Heating Blocks

• Hot-Stirrer Plates

• Pipetman sets

• Counter Top Culture Rocker

• Microcentrifuges (Non-refrigerated)

• Electrophoresis units with power supplier

• Ovens and muffle furnaces

Additional Opportunities

Because down time is a critical component to building community, the leadership team will be providing multiple opportunities for informal gatherings including the following (subject to change):

• Waterside Equipment and Facilities

• Access to the Athletics and Recreation Facilities

• Riverside evening hour at the SMCM Boathouse

• Fireside evening hour in the housing common areas

• Evening river cruise excursion

• Afternoon/evening excursion to Washington, DC