IRES: U.S.-Czech Student Research Experience on Understanding Water and Chemical Transport in the Earth's Vadose Zone

University Of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln NE

Investigators

Abstract

This U.S.-Czech international research experience for students (IRES) project supports a partnership between scientists from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and the Czech Technical University-Prague (CTU) that is designed to prepare U.S. students for STEM graduate-level study through an early career cooperative research experience focused on the earth's vadose zone, known as the geologic "skin of the earth." For each of the three years of this IRES project, cohorts of four U.S. science and engineering students will expand their global competence through a well-integrated, eight-week international research and educational experience in the Czech Republic. Principal Investigator Chittaranjan Ray (UNL), along with lead counterparts Michal Snìhota and Martin Sanda (CTU), will serve as mentors. In their collaboration with CTU scientists and students, U.S. participants will jointly conduct hypothesis-driven laboratory experiments and field investigations designed to characterize water and chemical movement in unsaturated soils with macro pores (large pores due to wormholes, cracks etc.) at site-to-watershed scale in the Czech Republic. The U.S. students will learn about creative, original, and potentially transformative methods the Czechs are using to study the fate and transport of water and contaminants through the unsaturated zone, particularly in terms of preferential flow. New research results and knowledge of novel technologies being used in Europe will be shared in the U.S. through this project, thereby contributing to the development of a more globally engaged science workforce as well as to the sustainability of valuable water resources which affect economic competitiveness both domestically and internationally. U.S. IRES participants will collaborate with the Czech researchers to evaluate the utility and accuracy of these new methods, which promise to significantly expand scientific understanding of vadose zone processes. These are considered critical to protecting and preserving ground water resources. As the "skin" of the earth, the vadose zone, or the unsaturated zone, regulates various functions like water percolation and contaminant attenuation, among others. Over the course of their IRES research abroad, U.S. students will learn about and use new technologies and methods developed in Europe. Understanding flow and transport processes in the vadose zone is a key to identifying ground water pollution potential and to developing mitigation strategies. IRES participants also will work with Czech partners to evaluate the utility and accuracy of innovative Czech technologies used to study water flow at different scales. Their findings are expected to materially contribute data about the correlation of small-scale measurements of soil properties to watershed processes. Overall, the IRES experience is intended to encourage a diverse group of undergraduate participants to pursue graduate education in STEM fields. The U.S. students will be encouraged to publish and to share their experiences via the UNL-maintained IRES website and through presentations at appropriate professional meetings, such as meetings of the American Society of Engineering Education.