Wyoming NSF EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement

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Proposal: EPS-0447681Proposal Title: Wyoming NSF EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Institution: University of WyomingThe Wyoming EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement award will build capacity and capability for national competitiveness in Natural Resource Sciences, especially emphasizing ecological topology of different spatial and time scales as it relates to ecosystem and global change: Currently, the university has 20 faculty members in diverse departments for this very broad, interdisciplinary area. The award will provide partial start-up support for five new hires to fill specific needed niches in a newly initiated interdisciplinary PhD program. Equipment and committed technical staff will be supported to enhance the Stable Isotope, Nucleic Acid Exploration, and GIS facilities, thereby strengthening research competitiveness and fostering additional collaborations in this research focus area and contributing to the development of a critical mass of research and educational expertise necessary for large, multi-investigator, competitive research programs. This focus relating to ecosystem responses to global change has significant current merit and importance both for Wyoming and, more broadly, for national and international concerns. There is growing recognition of the need for modeling and understanding ecological processes at different spatial scales. This project will provide a research and education focus related to that need for the university. More importantly, Wyoming's strength in geological studies will give added value in being able to address questions in different time scales as well as spatial scales. This perspective will be of particular value in informing policy decisions. Integration of research and education will be emphasized in all aspects of the project. In the faculty recruitments researchers who are also excellent teachers will be sought to strengthen the new interdisciplinary PhD program. The award will supplement the university's level of graduate student stipends and this greater level of support will require that participating students take a course in Teaching for Scientists and Engineers. A different kind of graduate student support is to be provided for graduate student mentors for the Science Education program. Students receiving this mentorship support will assist secondary science education students in a summer research experience. Undergraduate fellowships for university and community college students will engage these students in research experiences. Outreach efforts will expand the number of high students participating in a previously successful summer research program. In addition, technical assistance will be engaged for efforts to increase public awareness of the role of research in higher education and its contribution to the state's economic growth and especially to make high school students and their parents more aware of undergraduate research opportunities.