NRT: Sustainable Water Innovations in Materials: Mentoring, Education, and Research (SWIMMER)

无论是在美国还是在全球，水资源都处于危机状态。水管理需要处理和输送有限的、往往是不断减少的资源中的水，以满足不断增长的全球人口的需求。现在发现所谓的“永久化学物质”污染了饮用水供应，有毒产品通常被排放到水道中。材料中的可持续水创新-指导、教育和研究（SWIMMER）项目将培养研究、创新、制造和管理可持续材料和化学品的学员，旨在在其整个生命周期内保护水资源。这项授予麻省大学洛厄尔分校的国家科学基金会研究培训（NRT）奖将利用和磨练来自多个学科的年轻科学家和工程师的才能，以改变材料的生命周期及其与水生态系统的相互作用。该项目将培养60名硕士和博士研究生，其中包括25名资助学员，来自塑料、机械、化学和土木/环境工程、化学、地球科学、生物学、公共卫生和经济学等领域。SWIMMER学员将在各个学科之间进行深入而有意义的互动。这种跨学科培训将使毕业生具备应对多方面挑战的能力，这些挑战需要STEM创新，了解他们的社会经济和政治基础，并对环境正义和包容性决策的社会需求做出反应。项目负责人还将做出战略承诺，通过从代表性不足的群体中招募学生来攻读STEM研究生学位，扩大SWIMMER团队的参与。SWIMMER学员将在三个变革性主题上进行融合研究：作为生活实验室的流域，用于污染预防和修复的循环材料设计，以及可持续产品设计和减少有毒物质使用。该项目包括针对多元化和支持性社区的偏见和包容培训、沟通技巧培训、工业历史沉浸式学习、两个学期的核心课程以及建立共同知识基线的预备训练营，以及与学术研究、行业和社会需求密切相关的团队顶峰项目。结合从合作机构招聘不同的学员，并与工业和社区利益相关者合作，该计划将为毕业后寻求行业职位的大部分研究生以及下一代教师做好准备。美国国家科学基金会研究实习生（NRT）计划旨在鼓励开发和实施大胆的、具有潜在变革性的STEM研究生教育培训新模式。该项目致力于通过创新、循证、适应不断变化的劳动力和研究需求的综合培训模式，在高优先级跨学科或融合研究领域对STEM研究生进行有效培训。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Water resources are in a state of crisis both in the U.S. and globally. Water management requires treating and delivering water from limited, often declining resources to meet the needs of a growing global population. So-called ‘forever chemicals’ are now found to contaminate drinking water supplies, and toxic products are commonly discharged into waterways. The Sustainable Water Innovations in Materials – Mentoring, Education, and Research (SWIMMER) program will produce trainees who will research, innovate, manufacture, and manage sustainable materials and chemicals aimed at protecting water resources over their entire life cycle. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award to the University of Massachusetts Lowell will harness and hone the talent of young scientists and engineers from multiple disciplines to transform the lifecycle of materials and their interaction with water ecosystems. The project will train 60 master’s and Ph.D. students, including 25 funded trainees, from the fields of Plastics, Mechanical, Chemical and Civil/Environmental Engineering, Chemistry, Earth Science, Biology, Public Health, and Economics. The SWIMMER trainees will engage in deep and meaningful interactions across various disciplines. This interdisciplinary training will result in graduates equipped to address multi-faceted challenges requiring STEM innovations, understanding their socio-economic and political foundations, and responsive to societal needs for environmental justice and inclusive decision-making. The program leaders will also make a strategic commitment to broadening participation of the SWIMMER cohorts by recruiting students from underrepresented groups to pursue a STEM graduate degree.SWIMMER trainees will conduct convergent research across three transformative themes: Watersheds as Living Labs, Circular Materials Design for Pollution Prevention and Remediation, and Sustainable Product Design and Toxics Use Reduction. The program features bias and inclusion training for a diverse and supportive community, communication skills training, immersion in industrial history, a two-semester core course preceded by a preparatory boot camp to establish a common convergent knowledge baseline, and team capstone projects closely linked to academic research and the needs of industry and society. Combined with the recruitment of diverse trainees from partner institutions and in collaboration with industrial and community stakeholders, this program will prepare the large share of graduate students seeking industry positions upon graduation as well as the next generation of faculty.The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary or convergent research areas through comprehensive traineeship models that are innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs.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.