REU Site: Stanford Earth Summer Undergraduate Research in Geoscience and Engineering (SURGE)

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The SURGE REU will match 10 undergraduate students to faculty in Stanford Earth (Stanford School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences) that are in their area of interest. The undergraduate students will come from community colleges or four-year universities in the US with eight-week-long mentored research experiences during the summers of 2020 through 2022 in the areas of Earth System Science, Energy Resources Engineering, Geological Sciences, and Geophysics. In the selection process, priority will be given to students from underrepresented backgrounds in the Earth and environmental sciences, including students who do not have prior research experience and who come from undergraduate institutions with limited research opportunities. Within this three-year span, the SURGE program will provide research opportunities to 30 students with the aim of helping to create a diverse pipeline into Earth and environmental sciences post-graduate programs and careers. SURGE Scholars will be matched with faculty members based on research interest, application essays, letters of recommendation, and interviews. In addition to gaining scientific training in a Stanford Earth research group, students will also participate in graduate school preparation and professional development activities such as a GRE prep course that meets twice per week and workshops on applying to graduate school, planning career trajectories, and giving oral presentations. Participants will also have the opportunity to participate in coding workshops. Weekly faculty research seminars will familiarize students to a broad range of research topics in the Earth sciences, while educational field trips will provide opportunities for students to learn in the field and build a sense of community. A research symposium concludes the program, where students present their project findings through oral presentations and posters in front of faculty, mentors, and other Stanford Earth colleagues who help review the presentations. SURGE scholars will live on the Stanford campus and have access to dining halls and other Stanford amenities, sharing the residential experience with fellow scholars and thus enhancing the cohort research experience. Program success will be measured through student and faculty surveys. SURGE scholars will be tracked after the program in order to determine their career paths and to provide an alumni network.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.