IGERT: Spatial Ecology and Evolution: Quantitative Training in Biology, Statistics, and Mathematics

该综合研究生教育和研究培训（IGERT）奖支持博士生在生态学和进化，数学和统计学的跨学科培训，以解决具有重要空间维度的研究问题。 大多数环境问题本质上是空间性的：例如，新出现的病原体和入侵物种出现在一个地方，然后扩散到其他地方;许多点源释放的有毒物质造成了各种接触状况;人口通过进化和迁移对环境变化作出反应。在空间背景下理解生态系统提供了更深入的理解，并有助于预测和管理各种环境变化，但它需要新的生物学思想和新的定量工具。 因此，在这个奖项中，学员将学习跨越生物学，统计学和数学之间的界限，并将基础知识应用于环境挑战。 在学习了共同的学科概念后，学员将参加为期一年的跨学科研讨会，以解决政府机构和非政府组织客户定义的生态学和进化中的应用空间问题。 研讨会将要求学生学习新的工具，将理论应用于现实世界的挑战，并传播工具和知识（其他科学家，利益相关者和非科学家）。 一周一次？空间动力学？学术讨论会将提供凝聚力和广度，年度专题讨论会将提供进一步的学习和交流渠道。 学生将准备并有机会在整个大学的本科和研究生课程中教授跨学科主题。 该计划还将扩大对该领域其他研究生的培训，并打破将科学家孤立在各自学科中的制度障碍。IGERT是一个NSF范围内的计划，旨在满足教育美国博士的挑战。具有跨学科背景的科学家和工程师，在所选学科的深厚知识，以及未来职业需求所需的技术，专业和个人技能。该计划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促进研究生教育的文化变革。

This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) award supports the interdisciplinary training of doctoral students in ecology and evolution, mathematics and statistics in order to address research questions that have an important spatial dimension. Most environmental issues are inherently spatial: for example, emerging pathogens and invasive species appear in one place and disperse to others; toxicants released from many point sources create a mosaic of exposure regimes; populations respond to environmental change by evolving and migrating. Understanding ecological systems in a spatial context provides deeper understanding and helps to predict and manage environmental change of all kinds, but it requires both new biological ideas and new quantitative tools. Thus in this award trainees will learn to cross the boundaries between biology, statistics, and mathematics, and to apply basic knowledge to environmental challenges. After learning common disciplinary concepts, trainees will participate in a novel year-long interdisciplinary workshop to tackle applied spatial problems in ecology and evolution defined by clients from government agencies and non-governmental organizations. The workshops will require students to learn new tools, apply theory to real-world challenges, and disseminate tools and knowledge (to other scientists, to stakeholders, and to non-scientists). A weekly ?spatial dynamics? colloquium will provide cohesion and breadth, and an annual symposium will provide further avenues for learning and communication. Students will be prepared to and given the opportunity to teach interdisciplinary topics in undergraduate and graduate courses throughout the university. The program will also broaden the training of other graduate students in this area, and break down institutional barriers that isolate scientists in their home disciplines. 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.