IGERT: Global Linkages of Biology, Environment, and Society (GLOBES)

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This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) award supports the establishment of a new interdisciplinary graduate program in Global Linkages of Biology, Environment and Society (GLOBES) at the University of Notre Dame. The program integrates research, training, and educational activities among complementary faculty in ecology, evolution and environment, infectious disease, and social science, ethics, law and economics. The goal of the program is to train a new generation of Ph.D. scientists capable of designing and implementing sound scientific solutions to environmental problems within the framework of human culture, economics, policy, and law. Human practices and activities affecting environmental and global health have interrelated causes and feedbacks. These feedbacks are both biological and social, and exacerbate environmental degradation and the spread of invasive species and disease. Consequently, solutions to increasingly linked environmental and health problems require the coordinated interaction of biological and social scientists with expertise in ecology, evolution, infectious disease, anthropology, ethics, law, policy, and economics. The intellectual merit of this IGERT consists of the integration of the research and education activities of life and social scientists at the University of Notre Dame in a concerted effort to understand and find solutions to five specific problems: (1) invasive species in the Great Lake and their cascading effects on ecosystems (2) interactions of human land-use change and malaria transmission in West Africa; (3) cross-primate exchange of disease on the island of Bali, (4) resurgence of schistosomiasis in China driven by changes in water- and land-use patterns, and (5) impacts of invasive Sudden Oak Death as it spreads across the U.S. Without interdisciplinary thinking, relatively simple and effective measures to reduce environmental damage and disease transmission can go unrecognized. Most analyses suffer from concentrating on only one aspect of the question (e.g., ecology, culture, or disease). This IGERT will foster cross-disciplinary conversation and guide research directed at developing prevention and control responses to invasive species and disease that are scientifically sound, culturally acceptable, and cost-effective. The IGERT will use a coordinated set of approaches ranging from team-based research projects to outreach service activities to provide students with the interdisciplinary skills and knowledge they need to tackle the increasingly complex environmental and global health problems of our nation and the planet. The broader impacts of this proposal include finding solutions to these environmental and health problems. 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.