This award provides renewed funding for a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at the University of California, Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, CA. The Scripps Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF)program is a 10-week summer program that invites sixteen undergraduate students from across the country to Scripps to participate in a high quality collaborative research with Scripps faculty and researchers. Program components include a comprehensive research project, research seminars, career workshops, graduate school preparation, a GRE-prep course, participation in a research symposium, field trips and social events. Research topics directly relate to many contemporary environmental issues and underlie an understanding of earth systems, evolution, climate, marine and ocean sciences and sustainability. All participants will present the results of their summer research projects in the SURF Research Symposium at Scripps and will be encouraged to present at a national conference as well. This program will give REU participants access to research facilities at Scripps and the opportunity to engage in high quality collaborative research with accomplished faculty mentors, graduate students and researchers. The breadth of ocean-related sciences at Scripps makes it accessible to students from practically all science and engineering disciplines, including mathematics, physics, chemistry, geology, ecology, physiology, molecular/biotechnology, environmental sciences, technology/computer science and pharmaceutical sciences. This program will provide a total of forty-eight students with an exceptional research experience and career training.
