REU Site: Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research on Bioenergy Crops: Feedstock Development, Bioprocessing and Sustainable Agriculture

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An award has been made to South Dakota State University that will provide research training for 10 weeks for 10 students, during the summers 2010-2012. The interdisciplinary REU site will allow undergraduate students in chemistry, biology, and engineering to learn research skills and to participate in unique research experiences related to biofuels and bioenergy. Bioenergy is not only an emergent area in science and engineering with profound implications for the U.S. economy, but it is also an excellent training ground in multidisciplinary research. The program is structured around three focal areas: feedstock development and production, bioprocessing, and environmental sustainability. The students will actively get involved in projects representing the whole spectrum of state of the art bioenergy research from feedstock genomics, to new technologies in bioprocessing and the conversion of bioenergy crops into biofuels, to ecological and environmental sustainability of agricultural crop production. The students will work together with faculty mentors from 5 different departments (Biology and Microbiology, Agricultural Engineering, Plant Science, Chemistry, and Wildlife) with active research programs on bioenergy. To strengthen the learning experience, the students will host high school students for a 2 day program, and will involve them in their research activities. Field trips to industry partners will allow students to learn about potential careers in the bioenergy industry. An ethics component that addresses scientific ethics and misconduct, and workshops about scientific writing, women in the sciences, and environmental justice will round off the program for the students. The program encourages nationwide applications from students from diverse backgrounds. Students will be selected according to their transcripts and research interests. Participants will be required to write a final report as well as present their findings at a campus-wide bioenergy symposium at the end of the 10 weeks. Formative and summative evaluations, including a common web-based tool used by the BIO REU program, will be used to determine the student´s expectations at the start of the program, and their experiences after the program. For questions about the program, and the application, please contact Heike Bücking (heike.bucking@sdstate.edu) or José L. Gonzalez (jose.gonzalez@sdstate.edu) or visit the web page at: http://biomicro.sdstate.edu/reu_bioenergy/.