LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ -- Dr. Feng Chen of Lawrenceville, NJ, associate professor of chemistry at Rider University, is on paid research leave for the 1998 fall semester to continue her research project on the synthesis of new ternary transition nitrides using ion exchanged emulsion polymer resin.

She is working on this project at Rutgers University and will study the physical properties of several compounds which were made at Rider during the summer.

At the same, Dr. Chen will collaborate with Dr. Martha Greenblatt of Rutgers on a project involving solid state ionic conductors.

Dr. Chen will try to develop a hydrothermal synthesis method to make lanthanum and gallium mixed with small quantities of strontium and magnesium. This procedure could produce a potentially good electrolyte material for solid state fuel cells.

A member of the Rider faculty since 1991, she is a specialist in solid state chemistry and material science. She is listed as a holder of patent involving crystal alignment technique for superconductors with William Giessen and Robert S. Markiewicz of Northeastern University.

Dr. Chen is the author of several articles in scientific journals and has made presentations at professional meeting. Undergraduate chemistry majors frequently assist her in her research and also have made presentations at conferences.

She received a Ph.D. in solid state chemistry and materials science from Northeastern University and holds a B.S. degree in inorganic materials engineering from Hunan University in China.

Rider University is an independent, coeducational, nonsectarian institution with a 353-acre main campus in Lawrenceville, New Jersey and a 23-acre campus in Princeton, New Jersey. The University offers 58 undergraduate programs and 17 graduate programs in the Colleges of Business Administration; Liberal Arts, Education, and Sciences; Continuing Studies; and Westminster Choir College. Ninety-three percent of the faculty hold doctoral or other appropriate advanced degrees.