IGERT: Integrative Graduate Education, Research, and Training in Population and Environment

这项关于人口和环境的IGERT项目的重点是土地利用和土地覆盖变化。它有三个长期的跨学科项目，作为培训和研究的“实验室”：一个设在泰国南荣；第二个设在厄瓜多尔的亚马逊；第三个设在坦桑尼亚的恩戈罗。每个项目的总体目标都是更好地了解人类在地球表面变化过程中的行为和作用。森林砍伐、农业推广、土地碎片化、集约化、退化、次生植物演替和城市化是统一的主题。这些项目的巨大优势和更广泛的影响集中体现在它们的全球影响力和区域复盖面上。所有这些都涉及与国内科学家的合作，他们提供关于实地地点和数据的详细的当地知识，为受训人员提供实地工作机会，并帮助促进对实质性和政策问题的全球视角。IGERT方案将提高项目内部和项目之间的协同效应，使受训人员直接受益。该项目的学术价值在于，它建立在某一学科的坚实基础上(博士学位属于某一学科或课程)，增加了互补学科的课程(针对自然科学家的人口科学；针对人口学者的自然和空间科学)，以及跨学科的培训和研究经验。拥有强大学科基础但接受过多角度培训的科学家将是在人口-环境相互作用研究中架起社会、自然和空间科学桥梁的理想人选。IGERT计划的内容包括：人口、土地利用和环境项目之一的研究学徒；正规课程工作；参加正在进行的跨学科研讨会；国际实地经验；以及道德培训。此外，还将创建一个实习计划，让属于代表性不足群体的本科生参与这些项目，并鼓励他们追求人口和环境方面的兴趣。IGERT培训计划将设在北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校的卡罗莱纳人口中心(CPC)。IGERT受训人员将在方案协调会获得设备齐全的办公室，IGERT项目教职员工(项目的主要和联合调查员)在那里设有研究办公室，项目的工作人员和基地也设在那里。IGERT计划加入并扩展了CPC的跨学科培训计划以及生态学和北卡罗来纳大学-CH的课程。此外，作为IGERT计划的一部分，CCP和杜克大学尼古拉斯环境与地球科学学院将联合主办一系列杰出的讲座、座谈会和研讨会。这些活动将集中关注两所大学的人口、土地利用和环境问题，并为两所大学的学生和教职员工未来的合作奠定基础。IGERT是一个NSF范围内的项目，旨在应对培养具有跨学科背景、所选学科的深厚知识以及满足未来职业需求所需的技术、专业和个人技能的美国博士科学家和工程师的挑战。该项目旨在通过建立创新的研究生教育和培训新模式，在超越传统学科界限的合作研究的肥沃环境中，催化研究生教育的文化变革。在该计划的第六个年头，由NSF支持的共同跨越科学和工程领域的项目将被授予机构奖项。

This IGERT program in population and environment has a focus on land use and land cover change. It features three longstanding interdisciplinary projects as "laboratories" for training and research: one based in Nang Rong, Thailand; a second in the Ecuadorean Amazon; and a third in Ngorongoro, Tanzania. Each project has as its overall goal a better understanding of human behavior and agency in the transformation of the Earth's surface. Deforestation, agricultural extensification, land fragmentation, intensification, degradation, secondary plant succession, and urbanization are unifying themes. The great strength and broader impacts of these projects collectively is their global reach and regional coverage. All involve collaboration with in-country scientists, who offer detailed local knowledge of field sites and data, facilitate fieldwork opportunities for trainees, and help to foster global perspectives on substantive and policy issues. The IGERT program will increase synergies within and across projects to the direct benefit of the trainees. The intellectual merit of this program is that it builds on a firm base in a discipline (Ph.D.s are in a discipline or curriculum), adding coursework in complementary disciplines (population science for natural scientists; natural and spatial science for population scholars) and interdisciplinary training and research experiences. Scientists with a strong disciplinary base but with training in multiple perspectives will be ideally placed to bridge social, natural, and spatial science in research on population-environment interactions. The elements of the IGERT program are: a research apprenticeship on one of the population, land use, and environment projects; formal course work; participation in an ongoing interdisciplinary seminar; international field experience; and ethics training. In addition, an internship program will be created to involve undergraduates who are members of underrepresented groups in the projects and to encourage them to pursue interests in population and environment. The IGERT training program will be housed at the Carolina Population Center (CPC) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). IGERT trainees will be provided with fully equipped offices at the CPC, where IGERT project faculty (the principal and co-investigators of the projects) maintain research offices and where the projects are staffed and based. The IGERT program joins and extends interdisciplinary training programs at the CPC and the Curriculum in Ecology and UNC-CH. Further, as part of the IGERT program, CPC and the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University will jointly sponsor a series of distinguished lectures, colloquia, and workshops. These will focus attention on population, land use, and environment issues on both campuses and lay a foundation for future collaborations among students and faculty at both institutions. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries. In this sixth year of the program, awards are being made to institutions for programs that collectively span the areas of science and engineering supported by NSF.