NRT: Sustainable Water Innovations in Materials: Mentoring, Education, and Research (SWIMMER)

美国和全球的水资源都处于危机状态。水管理需要处理和输送有限的、往往在减少的资源中的水，以满足不断增长的全球人口的需求。现在发现，所谓的“永久化学品”会污染饮用水供应，有毒产品通常会排放到水道中。材料中的可持续水创新-指导、教育和研究(SWIFMER)计划将培养出研究、创新、制造和管理可持续材料和化学品的学员，旨在保护水资源的整个生命周期。这项授予马萨诸塞大学洛厄尔分校的国家科学基金会研究培训(NRT)奖将利用和磨练来自多个学科的年轻科学家和工程师的才华，以改变材料的生命周期及其与水生态系统的相互作用。该项目将培训60名硕士和博士生，其中包括25名受资助的学员，他们来自塑料、机械、化学和土木/环境工程、化学、地球科学、生物学、公共卫生和经济学等领域。游泳者训练者将在不同的项目中进行深入和有意义的互动。这种跨学科培训将使毕业生具备应对需要STEM创新的多方面挑战的能力，了解他们的社会经济和政治基础，并响应社会对环境正义和包容性决策的需求。项目负责人还将做出战略承诺，通过从代表性不足的群体中招收学生来攻读STEM研究生学位，以扩大游泳运动员群体的参与。SWIMMER学员将在三个变革性主题上进行融合研究：作为生活实验室的流域、用于污染预防和修复的圆形材料设计，以及可持续产品设计和减少有毒物质使用。该计划的特点是为多元化和支持性社区提供偏见和包容培训、沟通技能培训、沉浸在工业历史中、为期两个学期的核心课程，在此之前先进行预备新人训练营，以建立共同的趋同知识基线，以及与学术研究以及行业和社会需求密切相关的团队顶峰项目。结合从合作机构招聘不同的实习生，并与行业和社区利益相关者合作，该计划将为毕业后寻求行业职位的研究生以及下一代教师做好准备。NSF研究型培训(NRT)计划旨在鼓励开发和实施大胆的、具有潜在变革性的STEM研究生教育培训模式。该计划致力于通过创新的、基于证据的、与不断变化的劳动力和研究需求保持一致的综合实习生模式，在高度优先的跨学科或趋同研究领域对STEM研究生进行有效培训。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Water resources are in a state of crisis both in the U.S. and globally. Water management requires treating and delivering water from limited, often declining resources to meet the needs of a growing global population. So-called ‘forever chemicals’ are now found to contaminate drinking water supplies, and toxic products are commonly discharged into waterways. The Sustainable Water Innovations in Materials – Mentoring, Education, and Research (SWIMMER) program will produce trainees who will research, innovate, manufacture, and manage sustainable materials and chemicals aimed at protecting water resources over their entire life cycle. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award to the University of Massachusetts Lowell will harness and hone the talent of young scientists and engineers from multiple disciplines to transform the lifecycle of materials and their interaction with water ecosystems. The project will train 60 master’s and Ph.D. students, including 25 funded trainees, from the fields of Plastics, Mechanical, Chemical and Civil/Environmental Engineering, Chemistry, Earth Science, Biology, Public Health, and Economics. The SWIMMER trainees will engage in deep and meaningful interactions across various disciplines. This interdisciplinary training will result in graduates equipped to address multi-faceted challenges requiring STEM innovations, understanding their socio-economic and political foundations, and responsive to societal needs for environmental justice and inclusive decision-making. The program leaders will also make a strategic commitment to broadening participation of the SWIMMER cohorts by recruiting students from underrepresented groups to pursue a STEM graduate degree.SWIMMER trainees will conduct convergent research across three transformative themes: Watersheds as Living Labs, Circular Materials Design for Pollution Prevention and Remediation, and Sustainable Product Design and Toxics Use Reduction. The program features bias and inclusion training for a diverse and supportive community, communication skills training, immersion in industrial history, a two-semester core course preceded by a preparatory boot camp to establish a common convergent knowledge baseline, and team capstone projects closely linked to academic research and the needs of industry and society. Combined with the recruitment of diverse trainees from partner institutions and in collaboration with industrial and community stakeholders, this program will prepare the large share of graduate students seeking industry positions upon graduation as well as the next generation of faculty.The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary or convergent research areas through comprehensive traineeship models that are innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.