URM: Mentoring of Minority Undergraduate Students through Research Focused on the Ecology of Disease in the US-Mexico borderlands

德克萨斯大学埃尔帕索分校（UTEP）获得了一项奖励，以建立一个NSF本科生研究和指导（URM）项目，以增加未被充分代表的少数民族本科生的数量，这些本科生为生态学、环境科学和疾病生态学的研究生院和职业做好准备，并/或有动力继续深造。在资助的头四年里，每年将招收四名学生，他们将在美墨边境地区进行令人兴奋的疾病生态学研究项目。NSF资金将用于支持每个本科生参与者共两年。在5年的资助期内，将有16名学生参加该项目。每位学生将由生物科学系至少12位从事疾病生态学研究的教员中的一位指导。UTEP URM计划将提供密集的研究和指导计划，包括实践研究，两周一次的研讨会，通过从当地到全国目的地的实地考察获得职业机会，以及参加科学会议。在研讨会期间，学生们将开发他们自己的研究项目，这将补充他们导师的研究总体任务，并符合UTEP URM的生物多样性，全球气候变化，疾病分布和动态在边境地区的主题。将开发一个基于网络的信息工具，它将为今后研究区域的人类健康和环境管理研究提供一个信息和数据来源。欲了解更多信息，请联系Vanessa Lougheed博士，邮箱：vlougheed@utep.edu，或访问http://ael.utep.edu/research/urm。

An award has been made to the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) to establish an NSF Undergraduate Research and Mentoring (URM) program in order to increase the number of underrepresented minority undergraduate students who are prepared for, and/or motivated to continue on to, graduate school and careers in ecology, environmental science and the ecology of disease. A cohort consisting of four students will be recruited each year in the first four years of the grant, and will conduct exciting research projects on the ecology of disease in the US-Mexico borderlands. NSF funds will be used to support each undergraduate participant for a total of two years. Over the 5-year period of the grant, a total of sixteen students will participate in the program. Each student will be mentored by one of at least twelve faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences who are doing research related to the ecology of disease. The UTEP URM program will provide an intensive research and mentoring program that includes hands-on research, bi-weekly workshops, exposure to career opportunities through field trips spanning local to national destinations, and travel to scientific meetings. During the workshops, students will develop their own research project that will both complement the overall mission of their mentor's research and fit within the UTEP URM theme of biodiversity, global climate change, and disease distribution and dynamics in the borderlands. A web-based information tool will be developed, and it will provide a source of information and data for future research on human health and environmental management in the study region. Additional information is available by contacting Dr. Vanessa Lougheed, at vlougheed@utep.edu, or by visiting http://ael.utep.edu/research/urm.