REU Site: Microbial community interactions and functions

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This REU Site award to The University of Tennessee, located in Knoxville, TN and will support the training of 10 students for 10 weeks during the summers of 2017- 2019. The program focuses on microbiology and the interplay between the microbial community structure and microbial community function. Housed in the Department of Microbiology, the site has more than 20 faculty who will serve as mentors: these faculty make their homes in Microbiology along with Earth & Planetary Sciences, Biosystems Engineering & Soil Sciences, Civil & Environmental Engineering and Earth & Planetary Science. There is a wide range of very interesting and exciting projects for the students that span microbiology in environments spanning oceans and lakes, caves and polar regions, industrial and agricultural sites. Online applications for the program will be reviewed by a panel of faculty who will select motivated students to participate.It is anticipated that a total of 30 students, primarily from schools with limited research opportunities, will be trained in the program. The program will provide opportunities for students interested in research-oriented careers to perform full-time lab research as well as participate in seminars and workshops where they will receive training in responsible conduct in research, professional communication skills, career opportunities in industry and academia, and the graduate school application process. A common web-based assessment tool used by all REU Site programs funded by the Division of Biological Infrastructure (SALG-URSSA) will be used to determine the effectiveness of the training program. Students will be tracked by social media after the program to determine their career paths. Students will be asked to respond to an automatic email sent via the NSF reporting system. More information about the program is available by visiting https://microreu.utk.edu/, by contacting the program director (Tennessee.microbiology.REU@gmail.com) or by contacting the PI (Professor Steven Wilhelm, wilhelm@utk.edu) or the co-PI (Dr. Gary LeCleir, glecleir@utk.edu).