The Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) Summer School

该奖项将支持一年一度的暑期学校，以教育本科生和研究生关于非相干散射雷达（ISR）的理论和实践。美国国家科学基金会支持全球六个ISR设施。一群训练有素的科学家操作和使用这些雷达的数据；然而，对于研究生来说，要成为这个社区的一部分并没有明确的途径。虽然少数学校提供ISR研究方面的培训，但大多数感兴趣的学生需要为自己拼凑出一条教育道路，或者通过博士后职位来追求这个项目。从2008年开始，非相干散射雷达学校提供了一个密集的实践项目，包括雷达实验和该领域专家的讲座。在过去的五年中，该项目取得了巨大的成功，美国和国际学生总是满额注册。一些学校在国外举办，并开展了关于讲座和实验的国际合作。许多在这些学校接受培训的学生继续在该领域工作，并成为ISR社区的一部分。该奖项的合作者代表了一个核心讲师团队，他们制定了一个成功的课程议程，旨在在一周的课程中传授ISR理论和实验的核心原则。根据雷达社区的邻近程度，未来的学校选择了五个地点：干草堆天文台（马萨诸塞州韦斯特福德）、阿雷西博天文台（波多黎各）、CONICET（阿根廷布宜诺斯艾利斯）、地球物理研究所（阿拉斯加费尔班克斯）和SRI国际（加利福尼亚州门洛帕克）。在这些地点，学生们将与ISR技术进行实际互动，并将熟悉雷达设施。ISR暑期学校的核心目标是鼓励新的参与者进入这个领域。事实上，过去参加暑期学校的学生继续提出他们自己的ISR实验，并在该领域变得活跃起来。获奖者将系统地跟踪参加暑期学校的学生的教育和职业轨迹，并向学校校友发送年度调查，以了解他们目前与社区ISR研究和活动的关系。他们还将鼓励经过挑选的校友回到学校担任导师和学生联络人。暑期学校的另一个重要方面是在该领域的知名科学家和感兴趣的学生之间建立的指导关系。在项目结束后，这些关系会成为学生继续学习和进入职场的一种资源。学生们还与同龄人建立关系，当他们回到各自的机构时，他们会提供支持。除了在美国建立的网络外，暑期学校还拥有强大的国际合作历史。该学院还与EISCAT暑期学校联合举办，许多欧洲学生和教授参加了该暑期学校。这两所学校计划每三年合并一次。

This award will support an annual summer school to educate undergraduate and graduate students on the theory and practice of incoherent scatter radars (ISR). The National Science Foundation supports six ISR facilities worldwide. A community of highly trained scientists operates and uses the data from these radars; however, there is no clear path for graduate students to become a part of this community. While a handful of schools provide training in ISR studies, most interested students need to cobble together an educational path for themselves or pursue the program through a postdoctoral position. Starting in 2008, incoherent scatter radar schools have been held to provide an intense hands-on program that involves a radar experiment and lectures from experts in the field. Over the past five years, the program has proven highly successful and is always fully subscribed with both US and international students. Some schools have been held outside the country, and international collaborations on lectures and experiments have been developed. Many students trained in these schools have continued in the field and become a part of the ISR community. The collaborators on this award represent a core team of lecturers who have developed a successful agenda of courses aimed at imparting the core principles of ISR theory and experimentation during the course of one week. Five locations have been selected for future schools, based on proximity to radar communities: Haystack Observatory (Westford, Massachusetts), Arecibo Observatory (Puerto Rico), CONICET (Buenos Aires, Argentina), Geophysical Institute (Fairbanks, Alaska), and SRI International (Menlo Park, California). At each of these locations, students will have hands-on interactions with ISR technology, and will become familiar with a radar facility. The core goal of the ISR summer school is to encourage new participants into the field. Students who attended the summer school in the past have, in fact, continued on to propose their own ISR experiments, and have become active in the field. The awardees will systematically track the educational and professional trajectories of students who attend the summer school and send out yearly surveys to school alumni to learn their current relationship to ISR research and activity in the community. They will also encourage select alumni to return to the school to act as mentors and student liaisons. Another important aspect of the summer schools is the mentoring relationships that are developed between established scientists in the field and interested students. Well after the program has ended, these relationships become a resource as students further their studies and enter the workforce. Students also form relationships with their peers, who provide support as they return to their individual institutions. In addition to the network established in the United States, the summer school has a strong history of international collaboration. The school has also been conducted jointly with the EISCAT summer school, where many European students and professors were in attendance. The two schools plan to merge again every three years.