REU Site: Climate and Atmospheric Science Research Experience in the Center for Climate and Aerosol Research at Portland State University

Portland State University, Portland OR

Investigators

Abstract

The Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program in the Center for Climate and Aerosol Research (CCAR) at Portland State University invests in fields of climate and atmospheric science through the mentoring and one-to-one training of future scientists in a ten-week intensive summer research program. The CCAR REU is an interdisciplinary program aimed at recruiting and training ten students each summer with interests in atmospheric and climate science and diversifying the next generation of learners who will better understand the Earth’s system and its changes in time. The specific objectives of this program are to: 1. train a diverse cohort of students from universities and colleges in atmospheric science research, primarily recruiting students from underrepresented groups in STEM who are currently attending community colleges, four-year undergraduate institutions, Native American-serving institutions and rural schools with otherwise limited research experience opportunities; 2. Provide in-depth education to participating students in current areas of atmospheric and climate science through hands-on research, opportunities not typically available to undergraduates particularly those at non-research intensive institutions; 3. Teach skills transferable across STEM research fields, e.g.: scientific inquiry, hypothesis testing, information literacy, critical thinking, data analysis, computer programming, fabricating and operating research instrumentation, lab and field research science, oral and science written communication; 4. Mentor students in independent interdisciplinary research guided by atmospheric and climate science faculty. Continued and sustained investments in basic geoscience is required as science reaches to meet societal needs to study the Earth’s terrestrial, ocean, and atmospheric systems, as is the training of the next generation of scientists who study the Earth. As the global society is facing a broad array of issues associated with a changing climate, a diverse population of researchers is urgently needed for studying the changing climate, mitigation of its impacts, and in the development of long-term solutions to reducing emissions that contribute to warming. The impacts of global warming and climate change will be felt deferentially by different communities making it critical that scientists working towards improved understanding of the problem and its solutions include a wide range of lived experiences, identities, and perspectives. Yet, the lack of diversity in geosciences has long been a persistent issue. For several decades, the proportion of underrepresented minorities among PhD recipients in the geosciences has stagnated. Through training and directly supporting new researchers from a broad-spectrum of educational, racial, gender and ethnic backgrounds, this REU program invests in the future of a more diverse community of geoscientists. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.