A Distributed Learning Environment for the Mathematics of Climate and Sustainability

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The research project focus will be on the mathematics needed for understanding our climate, its impacts and will help address the pressing issues of adaptation and sustainability in light of inevitable changes. Through this program, four cohorts of students will be trained in the mathematics underlying the all-important societal and scientific issues emanating from climate and sustainability. This will span a five year period and encompass four intensive week-long summer camps. Each cohort will consist of seven graduate and three undergraduate students. They will be trained in collaborative team-work that will prepare them well for a career in any scientific endeavor involving mathematical investigation. Each year will include online training to prepare the students for the summer camp and ongoing focus research groups during the subsequent academic year, during which time the students will work on concrete research problems.A new approach to both graduate and undergraduate student research training in applied mathematics is envisioned. The program will be based around yearly cycles in which a new cohort of students will be drawn from a national pool of applicants each year. The students will be brought through the program and trained in critical research and professional skills needed in the modern world of collaborative and interdisciplinary research. The year-long activities will be built around an intensive summer camp that kicks off the program for each student and ongoing web-based groups through which much of the skill-building and mentoring will take place. The effort is a partnership between the Mathematics and Climate Research Network (MCRN) and the American Institute of Mathematics (AIM). MCRN has considerable experience in building a web-active community that keeps a large geographically dispersed group engaged throughout the year and it will be the host environment for this effort. AIM will provide the institutional framework as well. This award was co-funded by the NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program. The NRT Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training.