REU Site: Summer Program in Chihuahuan Desert Biodiversity

University Of Texas At El Paso, El Paso TX

Investigators

Abstract

This REU Site award to the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), located in El Paso, TX, will support the training of 8 students for 10 weeks, during the summers of 2016- 2018. Research is conducted at UTEP and its Indio Mountains Research Station along with other Chihuahuan Desert (CD) sites in Texas and New Mexico. The program focuses on CD biodiversity, with emphasis on studies in evolution and ecology linked to interests of UTEP Biological Sciences faculty, who will serve as mentors. Students are expected to do full-time field and lab research and participate in seminars and workshops, such as responsible conduct in research, professional communication skills, among others. REU students will have access to well-equipped labs of mentors and interdepartmental research facilities. Students are selected based on academic record, research interest and potential, and faculty recommendations. It is anticipated that a total of 24 students, primarily from schools with limited research opportunities, will be trained in the program. Students will be mostly juniors or seniors but exceptional sophomores will be considered. This program seeks to recruit and excite a population of students poorly represented in science and with limited opportunities to do research at their home institutions. Students will be guided through hypothesis driven collaborative research projects to generate knowledge that may ultimately inform actions for environmental sustainability and human well-being. Students will present their research at a UTEP campus-wide summer research symposium and many will be encouraged to present their research results at scientific conferences. A common web-based assessment tool used by all REU programs funded by the Division of Biological Infrastructure (Directorate for Biological Sciences) will be used to determine the effectiveness of the training program. Internal surveys will also be used for feedback on training sessions. Students will be tracked after the program in order to determine their career paths. Students will be asked to respond to an automatic email sent via the NSF reporting system. More information about the program is available by visiting http://science.utep.edu/cdb-reu, or by contacting the PI (Dr. Michael Moody at mlmoody@utep.edu) or the co-PI (Dr. Jerry Johnson at jjohnson@utep.edu).