Collaborative Research: REU Site--Northeast Partnership for Atmospheric and Related Sciences (NEPARS)

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The Northeast Partnership for Atmospheric and Related Sciences (NEPARS) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site brings together two primarily undergraduate institutions with atmospheric and related science programs to expand research opportunities for a diverse population of undergraduate students early in their education. REU interns will conduct research in areas of mesoscale and synoptic weather, microclimates, biometeorology, mountain meteorology, modern climate, and paleoclimate to better understand their physical processes, their predictability, and impact on society. The primary objective of the NEPARS REU site is to provide learning opportunities to a promising and diverse group of undergraduates which will help them prepare for careers in STEM fields by conducting quality scientific research, building professional networks, improving leadership skills, and developing effective communication skills. Each year a cohort of 12 undergraduate students will be offered paid summer research positions with the NEPARS REU to work with faculty mentors from Hobart & William Smith Colleges (HWS) and Plymouth State University (PSU). Six students and three mentors will work at each research location during a 9-week summer research program. Additionally, the NEPARS REU will partner with the Mt. Washington Observatory and the Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences at SUNY Albany to offer interactions beneficial to REU student professional development. The NEPARS REU site has a primary focus on participation of rising sophomores and rising juniors that have just completed their first and second year, respectively, at two-year or four-year colleges and universities across the U.S. offering degrees in STEM fields. The REU site will be structured so that students work in pairs with a mentor. This will allow the students to develop experience working as part of a research team, while they will also learn autonomy of research with their own individual project within the team. Modern technology, such as video-conferencing, will be leveraged so that students can communicate across the two locations. The REU site has 4 objectives for students: 1) interact with, learn from, and conduct research investigations with their peers and dedicated mentors through the use of REU pairings and a REU cohort across two research locations, 2) explore and discover the social, cultural, and geographic diversity of others with comparable academic interests from similar or vastly different colleges and universities, 3) cultivate a greater understanding of atmospheric and related sciences beyond the extent taught in the undergraduate classroom and lab, including the development and enhancement of research skills while working with observational and modeling datasets, and 4) develop effective leadership and communication skills through a series of workshops and opportunities to interact with professionals within the scientific community. Additionally the REU site has developed two objectives for the REU mentors: 1) increase interactions between two primarily undergraduate institutions to strengthen the respective programs and support new, as well as existing, faculty research collaborations, and 2) enhance faculty development as undergraduate mentors through training, faculty-to-faculty mentoring, and by working with a diverse student population from a variety of academic institutions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.