IGERT: Integrative Graduate Education, Research, and Training in Population and Environment

IGERT在人口与环境方面的这一方案侧重于土地利用和土地覆盖变化。 它有三个长期的跨学科项目作为培训和研究的“实验室”：一个设在泰国的Nang Rong;第二个设在厄瓜多尔的亚马逊;第三个设在坦桑尼亚的Ngorongoro。 每个项目的总体目标是更好地了解人类在改造地球表面方面的行为和作用。砍伐森林、农业扩展、土地破碎化、集约化、退化、次生植物演替和城市化是统一的主题。 这些项目的巨大力量和更广泛的影响是其全球范围和区域覆盖面。所有这些活动都涉及与国内科学家的合作，这些科学家提供关于实地地点和数据的详细当地知识，为受训人员提供实地工作机会，并帮助培养对实质性问题和政策问题的全球观点。 IGERT计划将增加项目内部和项目之间的协同作用，使受训人员直接受益。 该计划的智力价值在于它建立在学科的坚实基础上（博士在学科或课程中），增加了补充学科的课程（自然科学家的人口科学;人口学者的自然和空间科学）和跨学科培训和研究经验。 科学家具有强大的学科基础，但在多个角度的培训将是理想的位置，以弥合社会，自然和空间科学在人口与环境相互作用的研究。 IGERT计划的要素是：对人口，土地使用和环境项目之一的研究学徒;正式课程工作;参与正在进行的跨学科研讨会;国际实地经验;和道德培训。 此外，还将设立一个实习方案，让代表性不足的群体的本科生参与项目，并鼓励他们追求对人口和环境的兴趣。IGERT培训方案将设在查佩尔山北卡罗来纳州大学的卡罗莱纳人口中心（CPC）。 IGERT学员将在CPC配备齐全的办公室，IGERT项目教师（项目的主要和共同研究者）在CPC设有研究办公室，项目也在CPC配备人员和基地。 IGERT计划加入并扩展了CPC的跨学科培训计划以及生态学和UNC-CH课程。 此外，作为IGERT计划的一部分，CPC和杜克大学尼古拉斯环境与地球科学学院将联合主办一系列杰出的讲座，座谈会和研讨会。 这些将集中关注两个校区的人口，土地使用和环境问题，并为两个机构的学生和教师之间的未来合作奠定基础。IGERT是一个NSF范围内的计划，旨在满足教育美国博士的挑战。具有跨学科背景的科学家和工程师，在所选学科的深厚知识，以及未来职业需求所需的技术，专业和个人技能。该计划旨在通过建立创新的研究生教育和培训新模式，在超越传统学科界限的合作研究的肥沃环境中促进研究生教育的文化变革。在该计划的第六个年头，奖项正在颁发给那些共同跨越NSF支持的科学和工程领域的计划机构。

This IGERT program in population and environment has a focus on land use and land cover change. It features three longstanding interdisciplinary projects as "laboratories" for training and research: one based in Nang Rong, Thailand; a second in the Ecuadorean Amazon; and a third in Ngorongoro, Tanzania. Each project has as its overall goal a better understanding of human behavior and agency in the transformation of the Earth's surface. Deforestation, agricultural extensification, land fragmentation, intensification, degradation, secondary plant succession, and urbanization are unifying themes. The great strength and broader impacts of these projects collectively is their global reach and regional coverage. All involve collaboration with in-country scientists, who offer detailed local knowledge of field sites and data, facilitate fieldwork opportunities for trainees, and help to foster global perspectives on substantive and policy issues. The IGERT program will increase synergies within and across projects to the direct benefit of the trainees. The intellectual merit of this program is that it builds on a firm base in a discipline (Ph.D.s are in a discipline or curriculum), adding coursework in complementary disciplines (population science for natural scientists; natural and spatial science for population scholars) and interdisciplinary training and research experiences. Scientists with a strong disciplinary base but with training in multiple perspectives will be ideally placed to bridge social, natural, and spatial science in research on population-environment interactions. The elements of the IGERT program are: a research apprenticeship on one of the population, land use, and environment projects; formal course work; participation in an ongoing interdisciplinary seminar; international field experience; and ethics training. In addition, an internship program will be created to involve undergraduates who are members of underrepresented groups in the projects and to encourage them to pursue interests in population and environment. The IGERT training program will be housed at the Carolina Population Center (CPC) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). IGERT trainees will be provided with fully equipped offices at the CPC, where IGERT project faculty (the principal and co-investigators of the projects) maintain research offices and where the projects are staffed and based. The IGERT program joins and extends interdisciplinary training programs at the CPC and the Curriculum in Ecology and UNC-CH. Further, as part of the IGERT program, CPC and the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University will jointly sponsor a series of distinguished lectures, colloquia, and workshops. These will focus attention on population, land use, and environment issues on both campuses and lay a foundation for future collaborations among students and faculty at both institutions. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries. In this sixth year of the program, awards are being made to institutions for programs that collectively span the areas of science and engineering supported by NSF.