REU Site: Environmental science and policy in the nation's capital

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This REU Site award to Georgetown University, located in Washington, DC, will support the training of 10 students for 10 weeks during the summers of 2016-2018. The program will enhance each student's ability to perform scientific research independently and expand their awareness of how such research dovetails with public policy. Students will work actively on an authentic environmental science research project advised by one of 13 faculty members. Research projects will be in environmental science fields including ecology, population biology, mathematical modeling, climate change, and earth science. Participants will learn an array of research skills including responsible conduct of research, formulating hypotheses, data management, and scientific writing. Students will participate in a full-day Communicating Science workshop to learn approaches to explaining scientific information to diverse audiences. Weekly seminars will bring to campus local professionals working in science policy to discuss their work, their careers, and career resources. Each student will produce a research poster and present at a summer research symposium. Because matching applicants to appropriate mentors is essential, advance communication with prospective mentors in the program is encouraged. It is anticipated that a total of 30 students, primarily from schools with limited research opportunities, will be trained in the program. Student participants will be drawn from the Baltimore-Washington DC region as well as nationally. The program will emphasize recruitment of students with research potential from groups underrepresented in environmental sciences and first-generation college students. Students will learn how research is conducted, and many will present the results of their work at scientific conferences. A common web-based assessment tool used by all REU programs funded by the Division of Biological Infrastructure (Directorate for Biological Sciences) will be used to determine the effectiveness of the training program. Students will be tracked after the program in order to determine student career paths. Students will be asked to respond to an automatic email sent via the NSF reporting system. More information about the program is available by visiting http://biology.georgetown.edu/REU, or by contacting the PI (Dr. Matthew B. Hamilton at matthew.hamilton@georgetown.edu) or the co-PI (Dr. Martha Weiss at weissm@georgetown.edu). This REU site is co-funded by the Division of Biological Infrastructure (Directorate for Biological Sciences), and the Division of Mathematical Sciences (Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences).