REU Site: Undergraduate Research in Biodiversity and Ecological Processes in Fluctuating Environments

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0244082 HoneycuttThis award funds a three-year Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site hosted by Texas A&M University (TAMU) and Texas A&M Corpus Christi (TAMUCC) for 10 students each year. The REU site is designed as a ten-week summer experience and will provide research opportunities to integrate engineering and life science technologies as they pertain to the study of ecological processes associated with biodiversity and environmental quality. The program will focus on environmental research benefiting from interaction between engineers and life scientists. Faculty mentors will include 3 engineers and 3 life scientists and students will be selected and assigned to these mentors to optimize interaction between different disciplines. The research experience will include activities at the Texas A&M University campus in College Station; the Texas A&M University Corpus Christi; oil spill bioremediation research sites; and other sites related to specific student projects. Students will participate in group activities involving working together on a data collection and analysis project; environmental case studies; and a roundtable discussion and presentation on the scientific method and modeling complex systems. At the end of the summer experience, each student will present their research results and write an in-depth paper on their project. Students will be recruited from within the TAMU system and other institutions across the state and nation with a special effort to attract students from population groups underrepresented in research fields in engineering and science in the United States.