REU Site: Undergraduate Research in Integrative Evolutionary Biology

University Of South Carolina At Columbia, Columbia SC

Investigators

Abstract

This award provides funds for the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of South Carolina to establish a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site in the area of integrative evolutionary biology. This REU Site will enable qualified undergraduate students to spend a summer doing independent research projects that involve the application of molecular techniques to evolution studies. Each student will conduct basic research under the direction of a faculty mentor who has an active research program in some area of evolutionary biology. Students learn about hypothesis generation and testing, as well as the techniques and experimental designs employed in molecular biology and one or more other sub-specialty areas -- behavior, life history evolution, systematics, population biology, and ecological physiology. At the end of the summer, each student will present a summary of his/her work in a departmental mini-symposium. Qualified applicants for the REU program will be recruited nationally via the internet and from nearby colleges and universities through personal contacts with faculty at these institutions. Additional applicants representing African American, Hispanic and native American minorities will be sought through contacts at AMP programs throughout the US and Puerto Rico. Previous participants have come from universities throughout the US and approximately 25% have been from underrepresented groups.