IGERT: Integrative Training in Ecology, Conservation and Pathogen Biology

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This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) award supports the establishes a program of graduate education and research in Ecology, Conservation, and Pathogen Biology involving collaboration across six academic departments and three institutes and campuses of the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UH Manoa). The purpose of this program is to provide doctoral students with interdisciplinary training in the skills required for conducting research at the interface of the biomedical and ecological sciences. The over-arching research theme is to improve the understanding of emerging infectious diseases, how they originate and spread, their impact on humans, domesticated animals, and on natural ecosystems and their biodiversity. The program builds on the unique collection of scientists, research projects and academic programs that exist at UH Manoa. Training will commence with students immersion in a unique 15-week intensive lab and field research experience that takes advantage of Hawaiis tropical forest and coral ecosystems as the outdoor classroom and laboratory. Students will conduct research using state-of-the-art equipment and facilities for carrying out research on the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of host-pathogen relationships, the molecular and cellular processes involved in pathogenesis, and the role of anthropogenic environmental change in emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. Each student will have two mentors for his/her doctoral career during the program, an evolutionary ecological scientist and a biomedical scientist or parasitologist. In addition to their research experiences, students will receive continuing training including biannual workshops, a group project to build interdisciplinary collaborative research skills, and an annual international symposium which the students help organize and run in addition to particiipating. 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.