IGERT: Solutions for Renewable and Sustainable Fuels in the 21st Century

这一综合性研究生教育和研究培训(IGERT)项目支持罗格斯大学在可再生和可持续燃料解决方案领域发展一个多学科、多机构的研究生培训计划。该项目与合作机构弗吉尼亚联合大学、特拉华州立大学和波多黎各大学一起，强调广泛的培训，将培养出能够在全球范围内设计和实施可持续燃料解决方案的新一代领导者和专业人员。毕业实习生将通过课程学习以及在工业、政府和学术界的实习和培训机会，接触到生物技术、化学、生态、工程和能源政策方面的基础知识。该计划将强调全球对能源研究的认识，以及燃料解决方案对当今和子孙后代66亿人的广泛政治和经济影响。来自罗格斯大学的参与教师将在大型少数族裔服务机构、历史上一直是黑人的学院和大学以及美国的女子学院展示研究，以吸引这些机构的学生参与IGERT项目。通过罗格斯能源研究所和农业与环境生物技术中心的协调，来自罗格斯大学14个研究所和中心的学员将与巴西、中国和南非的机构合作，进一步向IGERT学员介绍世界范围内复杂的燃料问题。因此，预计该IGERT项目的许多毕业生将成为制定我国未来能源经济和政策的领导者和专家，从而有利于国家的能源安全和应对相关的复杂气候变化问题。IGERT是一个NSF范围内的项目，旨在应对培养具有跨学科背景、所选学科的深厚知识以及满足未来职业需求所需的技术、专业和个人技能的美国博士科学家和工程师的挑战。该项目旨在通过建立创新的研究生教育和培训新模式，在超越传统学科界限的合作研究的肥沃环境中，催化研究生教育的文化变革。

This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) project supports the development at Rutgers University of a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional graduate training program in the area of renewable and sustainable fuel solutions. Together with partner institutions Virginia Union University, Delaware State University and the University of Puerto Rico, this program emphasizes broad training that will produce a new generation of leaders and professionals who can design and implement sustainable solutions for renewable fuels worldwide. Graduate trainees will all be exposed to fundamentals in biotechnology, chemistry, ecology, engineering and energy policy through course work as well as internships and training opportunities in industry, government and academia. The program will emphasize global awareness in energy research and the broad political and economic implications of fuel solutions for 6.6 billion people today and future generations. Participating faculty from Rutgers will present research at large minority-serving institutions, historically black colleges and universities, and women's colleges in the United States in order to attract students from these institutions to the IGERT project. Coordinating through the Rutgers Energy Institute and Biotechnology Center for Agriculture and the Environment, participants from 14 research Institutes and Centers at Rutgers University will partner with institutions in Brazil, China and South Africa to further expose IGERT trainees to complexities of the fuel problem worldwide. As such, it is expected that many of the graduates from this IGERT program will become leaders and experts to shape our country's future energy economy and policy, thereby benefiting the Nation's energy security and approach to the related complex issue of climate change. 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.