Twenty Years of Exceptional Success: The Molecular Education and
Research Consortium in Undergraduate computational chemistRY (MERCURY)
Abstract
The MERCURY consortium, established in 2000, has contributed greatly to
the scientific development of faculty and undergraduates. The MERCURY
faculty peer review publication rate from 2001-2019 of 1.7
papers/faculty/year is 3.4 times the rate of physical science faculty at
primarily undergraduate institutions. We have worked with over 1000
students on research projects since 2001, and 75% of our undergraduate
research students have been underrepresented in chemistry, either female
or students of color. Approximately half of our alumni attend graduate
school for the purpose of obtaining advanced degrees in STEM fields and
2/3 are female and/or students of color. We have had more than 1600
attendees at the 18 MERCURY conferences, including 111 invited speakers,
61 of whom have been female and/or faculty of color. In this paper the
research accomplishments, transformational outcomes, and scientific
productivity of the MERCURY faculty are highlighted.