EAGER: NESCent Ambassador Program

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports a new, international outreach program, developed by the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), called the NESCent Ambassador Program. The program will provide a novel professional development opportunity for U.S. based scientists, while promoting synthetic evolutionary research to underserved scientific communities in developing regions throughout the world. NESCent Ambassadors will lead short courses and workshops, provide one-on-one and small group consulting and engage in other education and outreach activities focusing on topics of evolutionary science and informatics. Ambassadorships will simultaneously improve research capabilities for US scientists in areas throughout the world that are rich in biodiversity and that could serve as key locations for evolution research. The NESCent Ambassador program will provide novel and valuable training and professional development opportunities for U.S. based scientists, including postdoctoral fellows, while serving as a new model for future innovative international outreach programs. Significantly, it will also allow U.S.-based scientists to build international networks of collaborators, an opportunity that is particularly critical for early career scientists. This program will widely disseminate evolutionary informatics tools, resources and methods to an international, traditionally underserved scientific audience. Lastly, but importantly, it will serve as a means of introducing and promoting the concepts and practices of synthesis research to an international audience.