REU Neuroscience and Behavior Program

该奖项为马萨诸塞大学神经科学和行为项目提供资金，以建立本科生研究经验网站。该计划将利用该地区存在的独特神经科学社区。阿默斯特地区五所学院的神经科学家都是马萨诸塞大学神经科学和行为项目（NSB）的成员。这个项目将把本科生带入实验室环境，在那里他们将成为一个研究团队的成员。这种方法将促进师徒关系的发展，这可能对职业选择产生深远而持久的影响。该计划将包括在其中一个实验室进行为期八周的研究项目。实验室工作旨在向学生介绍NSB计划中代表的三个神经科学专业领域之一；学习与行为神经内分泌学和神经发育。除了他们的实验室工作，学生还将参加一系列每周的研讨会，旨在通过介绍学生工作的实验室以外的实验室的知识和技术来提供神经科学的概述。通过这种方式，REU的学生将熟悉神经科学的广泛领域，从而为选择神经科学领域的职业做好更好的准备。REU计划的后续工作将是鼓励家庭机构开展工作。合格的本科生将从五所地方院校和全国本科生中招聘。该项目将特别关注招募在科学领域代表性不足的群体——女性和少数族裔。此外，与一些少数民族人口众多的机构的教师的个人联系已同意帮助确定合格的少数民族本科生参加该项目。由于REU的教师由28%的女性和少数民族组成，因此所有参与者都可以获得适当的榜样和导师。

This award provides funds to the Neuroscience and Behavior Program at the University of Massachusetts to establish a Research Experiences for Undergraduates Site. This program will take advantage of a unique neuroscience community that exists in this regional site. Neuroscientists at each of five colleges in the Amherst area are members of the University of Massachusetts Neuroscience and Behavior Program (NSB). This program will bring undergraduates into a laboratory environment where they will become members of a research team. This approach will facilitate the development of mentor-protege relationships, which may have a profound and long-lasting affect on career choices. The Program will consist of an eight-week research project in one of the laboratories. The laboratory work is designed to introduce students to one of the three specialty areas in neuroscience represented in the NSB Program; Learning and Behavior Neuroendocrinology, and Neurodevelopment. In addition to their laboratory work, students will attend a series of weekly workshops designed to provide an overview of neuroscience by introducing the knowledge and technology of laboratories outside the one in which the student works. In this way REU students will become familiar with a broad segment of neuroscience and thus be better prepared to choose careers in the neurosciences. The REU program will be followed up by encouraging work in the home institutions. Qualified undergraduates will be recruited from the five local institutions as well as from the national undergraduate population. The program will focus special attention on recruiting groups that are under-represented in science - women and minorities. In addition, personal contacts with faculty at a number of institutions with large minority populations have agreed to help identify qualified minority undergraduates for the program. Since the REU faculty is made up of 28% women and minorities, appropriate role models and mentors will be available for all participants.