UMEB: Research Integrating Molecular and Environmental Sciences (R.I.M.E.S.) Program

分子科学与环境科学相结合的研究该项目是一个国际研究和教育合作项目。它是为完成两年大学学业并致力于海洋或环境科学研究事业的高度上进心的少数族裔学者创建的。就像Jackson博士在马萨诸塞湾社区学院为非传统学生开设的非常成功的生物技术项目一样，R.I.M.E.S.项目的指导理念是，持续的跨学科研究训练与密集的指导相结合，推动非传统学者在科学领域的成功。其目标是在海洋和环境科学领域培养一支杰出的、数量可观的少数民族研究人员队伍，他们将为各自的领域带来卓越和急需的多样性。R.I.M.E.S.项目的学术部分在马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校（原址是波士顿大学医学院）进行，为学者们准备严谨的博士学位课程。这是通过密集的指导和严格的教程来实现的，旨在提高学生在大三和大四的学习成绩。学者们通过严格的申请程序被选入R.I.M.E.S.项目，旨在识别和招募最积极的个人。招聘的重点是那些个人情况使传统大学教育变得困难或不可能的男性和女性。因此，招募主要来自三种大学二年级学生：(1)来自单亲家庭的年轻非洲裔美国人和西班牙裔美国人（这是美国最危险的两个社会群体），(2)孩子12岁以上的单身母亲，(3)为了抚养孩子而推迟学业的已婚妇女。这些类别的学者在面临巨大障碍的情况下进入大学。因此，他们已经具备了推动一个成功的科学家的职业生涯的人类品质：坚持、专注、足智多谋、狡猾和坚韧。r.i.m.e.计划的学术组成部分促进这些属性的利用，以便学者实现并期望持续的学术卓越。R.I.M.E.S.项目的研究部分通过对夏季在蒙特塞拉特火山岛（北安的列斯群岛）实地研究中收集的生物进行分子调查，将海洋和环境科学与分子生物学结合起来。一个由来自几个国家的知名海洋和环境科学家组成的研究导师团队可以在蒙特塞拉特岛指导这些学者，并在他们回到杰克逊博士的实验室后（通过电子邮件、电话和传真）为他们提供指导。研究项目集中于（1995年和1997年）爆发和苏弗里埃尔山火山持续活动对蒙特塞拉特生态系统造成的环境压力的影响。这次大灾难造成的环境突变为在分子水平上研究生态系统的发展提供了难得的机会。研究的重点是在生物对火山引起的突然环境变化的适应性反应中被修改的分子过程。

The Research Integrating Molecular and Environmental Sciences (R.I.M.E.S.) Program is an international research and educational collaboration. It was created for highly motivated minority scholars who have completed two years of college and who are committed to research careers in marine or environmental sciences. As with Dr. Jackson's highly successful Biotechnology Program for nontraditional students at Massachusetts Bay Community College, the guiding philosophy of the R.I.M.E.S. Program is that continuous interdisciplinary research training coupled with intensive mentoring drive the success of nontraditional scholars in science. The goal is to produce an outstanding and numerically significant corps of minority researchers in the marine and environmental sciences who will bring distinction and much-needed diversity to their fields.The academic component of the R.I.M.E.S. Program occurs at the University of Massachusetts - Amherst (former location was Boston University School of Medicine) and prepares scholars for the scholastic rigor of a doctoral-degree program. This is achieved through intensive mentoring and rigorous tutorials designed to enhance the academic performance of scholars during their junior and senior years. Scholars are selected to the R.I.M.E.S. Program through a rigorous application process designed to identify and recruit only the most motivated individuals. Recruitment focuses on men and women whose personal circumstances made traditional college education difficult or impossible. Thus, recruitment is primarily from three categories of college sophomores: (1) young African-American and Hispanic males from single-parent families (the two most at-risk societal groups in the nation), (2) single mothers whose children are 12 years and older, and (3) married women who deferred their education to raise children. Scholars from these categories attend college in the face of overwhelming obstacles. Thus, they already possess the human qualities that drive the career of a successful scientist: persistence, focus, resourcefulness, guile and tenacity. The academic component of the R.I.M.E.S. Program promotes the utilization of these attributes so that scholars achieve and expect continuous scholastic excellence.The research component of the R.I.M.E.S. Program integrates marine and environmental science and molecular biology through molecular investigations of organisms collected in summer field research on the volcanic island of Montserrat (Northern Antilles). A corps of research mentors, established marine and environmental scientists from several countries, is available to guide the scholars on Montserrat and (by e-mail, phone and fax) after they return to Dr. Jackson's lab. The research projects converge on effects of the environmental stresses exerted on the ecosystem of Montserrat by the eruptions (in 1995 and 1997) and ongoing activity of the Soufriere Hills volcano. The abrupt environmental changes produced by this cataclysm provide a rare opportunity to study ecosystem development at the molecular level. The investigative focus is on molecular processes that have been modified in adaptive response of organisms to sudden environmental changes caused by the volcano.