REU Site: Research in Environmental Studies and Evolutionary Developmental Biology

San Francisco State University, San Francisco CA

Investigators

Abstract

This REU site award to San Francisco State University (SFSU), located in San Francisco, CA, will support the training of 10 students for 10 weeks during the summers of 2017- 2021. The program's focus is in the area of ecology, evolution, and developmental biology. REU fellows will work with a diverse team of REU mentors with active extramurally funded research labs, many of which are located at SFSU's marine station, the Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies (RTC). The program includes a 3-day intensive lab/field methods course, 9-week independent research project, 9-week professional development seminar, bioethics workshop, variety of networking activities, and research conferences on the main campus and at RTC where students present their research projects to the broader community. The program?s recruitment effort consists of "hard copy" and digitally-based advertising, as well as through networking activities by REU alumni and faculty. It is anticipated that a total of 50 students from diverse backgrounds, at an early stage of their academic careers, and primarily from schools with limited research opportunities, will be trained in the program. Students will learn how research is conducted, and many will present their results at scientific conferences. The goals are to encourage students to not only complete their undergraduate degrees in the sciences, but also consider graduate-level training and careers in the sciences. Therefore, students are selected based on their academic record, letters of recommendation, interest in ecology, evolution, and development, and future career goals. Pre and post surveys as well as a common web-based assessment tool used by all REU Site programs funded by the Division of Biological Infrastructure will be used to determine the effectiveness of the training program. Students are tracked to determine the impact of the research experience on their academic and career paths. Students will be asked to respond to an automatic email sent via the NSF reporting system. More information is available by visiting http://biology.sfsu.edu/faculty-pages/reu, or by contacting the PI (Dr. Carmen Domingo at cdomingo@sfsu.edu) or the co-PI (Dr. Sarah Cohen at sarahcoh@sfsu.edu).