IGERT: Spatial Ecology and Evolution: Quantitative Training in Biology, Statistics, and Mathematics

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This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) award supports the interdisciplinary training of doctoral students in ecology and evolution, mathematics and statistics in order to address research questions that have an important spatial dimension. Most environmental issues are inherently spatial: for example, emerging pathogens and invasive species appear in one place and disperse to others; toxicants released from many point sources create a mosaic of exposure regimes; populations respond to environmental change by evolving and migrating. Understanding ecological systems in a spatial context provides deeper understanding and helps to predict and manage environmental change of all kinds, but it requires both new biological ideas and new quantitative tools. Thus in this award trainees will learn to cross the boundaries between biology, statistics, and mathematics, and to apply basic knowledge to environmental challenges. After learning common disciplinary concepts, trainees will participate in a novel year-long interdisciplinary workshop to tackle applied spatial problems in ecology and evolution defined by clients from government agencies and non-governmental organizations. The workshops will require students to learn new tools, apply theory to real-world challenges, and disseminate tools and knowledge (to other scientists, to stakeholders, and to non-scientists). A weekly ?spatial dynamics? colloquium will provide cohesion and breadth, and an annual symposium will provide further avenues for learning and communication. Students will be prepared to and given the opportunity to teach interdisciplinary topics in undergraduate and graduate courses throughout the university. The program will also broaden the training of other graduate students in this area, and break down institutional barriers that isolate scientists in their home disciplines. 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.