YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - A $475,000 federal grant is helping Youngstown State University's STEM College distinguish itself nationwide.

Congressman Tim Ryan and YSU President Dr. Randy Dunn announced the nearly half million dollar award from the National Science Foundation.

The money will be used to purchase research equipment that allows students to see the structure of a molecule at an atomic level.

"We saturate all our students so that when they come out they have had dozens or hundreds of hours of experience with these instruments so they get much better grad schools or med schools or 10 or 20 percent more starting wages." said YSU Chemistry Professor Allen Hunter.

The state-of-the-art equipment will help with materials research.