REU Site: The Science of Global Change and Sustainability

University Of Texas At Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

This award will support an REU program focus on The Science of Global Change and Sustainability hosted by the Environmental Science Institute?s at the University of Texas - Austin. The goals of the program are to provide REU students with an engaging research experience, the excitement of scientific inquiry, professional development opportunities, and an expanded perspective regarding graduate school and a science career. Additionally, student researchers will be engaged in approaches to campus sustainability as a local way to address issues of global change. Real advancements in global change science require a non-traditional, interdisciplinary approach that integrate basic sciences such as geology, hydrology, and ecology, with applied and social sciences such as urban ecology, engineering, and policy. This REU program will provide both the specific disciplinary training and collaborative experiences necessary to develop and inspire future integrative scientists. REU students will follow a program that allows them to conduct field research, analyze samples on state-of-the-art instrumentation, interact with graduate students and faculty in multiple departments to interpret the results, present the results at a campus-wide poster session and then at a national professional meeting, and participate in seminars on research ethics, global change science topics, and the science-policy interface.