REU Site: Bioinformatic and Phylogenetic Approaches to the Study of Plant and Fungal Biodiversity

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

The Department of Biology at Duke University will host seven undergraduate students each summer in a research program in Bioinformatic and Phylogenetic Approaches to the Study of Plant and Fungal Biodiversity. The site is supported by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program. Applications to participate in Bioinformatics and Phylogenetics will be accepted from sophomore and junior undergraduates. Students with limited opportunities for research, including under-represented minorities, are especially encouraged to apply. The seven faculty who will serve as mentors in our program have active research programs ranging from the Tree of Life initiative to reconstructing species-level genealogies, and within species and population-level genomic-based biology of plants and fungi. The focus of the ten-week summer program will be a research mentorship with a participating faculty member. The series will strive to reinforce the intellectual integration of the undergraduate participants with graduate students and senior personnel by developing the programmatic theme including three types of activities into a ten-week undergraduate research experience: (1) a two-day orientation; (2) a twice-weekly seminar/discussion series; and (3) a research forum for presenting the summer's results and conclusions. The intention is to provide a supportive environment to the students as they progress through the summer, as well as to reinforce the image of science as an interactive enterprise. Duke University has a history of successful undergraduate summer research programs, especially those that provide training experiences for women and minorities. We have drawn from this experience and will be able to make use of existing administrative structures both for recruiting candidates to the program and for providing the logistical support necessary for an engaging and stimulating research experience. The research environment at Duke offers state-of-the-art facilities, including world-class research collections of plants and fungi, a diverse living reference collection of plants and cultures of fungi and algae, the Duke Biology Genetic Analysis Facility, and the experimental setting provided by the Duke Forest, including the Forest-Atmosphere Carbon Transfer and Storage (FACTS-I) site. For further information and application materials, please contact Dr. Paul Manos at pmanos@duke.edu or (919) 660-7358, or visit http://www.biology.duke.edu/reu.