Humboldt State University will host 7 students each summer in a 10-week REU program in ecology and evolutionary biology. The program is designed to provide hands-on research opportunities for undergraduates, especially those from underrepresented groups in the sciences. Recruitment will be based on interest in ecology and evolutionary biology, career goals, and academic achievement. Students will be selected to ensure a culturally diverse group, including those training to become biology teachers. Faculty mentors have active research programs that span the full gamut of evolutionary biology, from the diversity of microbial communities in hot springs at Lassen Volcanic National Park to the evolutionary ecology of songbirds, and the systematics and biogeography of fishes. Students will: 1) learn the essentials of experimental design and statistical analysis, 2) design and implement independent research projects, 3) present their work at an end-of- summer symposium, 4) write a manuscript, and 5) participate in a social program that instills an appreciation for the wide variety of natural habitats in Northern California. Humboldt State University offers outstanding facilities and field sites for research in evolutionary biology. Within 30 miles of Arcata, students can visit salt marshes, sand dunes, old growth redwoods (including a 600-acre redwood forest directly adjacent to campus), grassland savannas, Douglas fir forests, serpentine grasslands, mudflats, rocky tide pools, and benthic marine habitats. For further information and application materials, please contact Dr. Sean Craig at sfc4@humboldt.edu or (707) 826-3656, or visit www.humboldt.edu/~hsureu/.
During three summers (from 2008 to 2010), Humboldt State University (HSU) offered an NSF-REU (Research for Undergraduates) SITE program in which 26 students from all across the country were provided a 10-week, hands-on research experience in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, working closely with 12 different faculty at HSU utilizing modern scientific tools to study organisms ranging from bacteria to gray whales. Almost half (46%) of these interns were minority students who came from Universities ranging from the university of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez to Charleston Southern University in South Carolina. Results from these student-driven research projects ranged from the discorvery of anti-biotic resistance genes in bacteria native to Boiling Springs Lake, Lassen Volcanic National Park, to the influence of cattle grazing on pocket gophers in the Central Sierra Nevada Mountains and their implications for great gray owl conservation. The research conducted by these undergraduate interns resulted in 5 published papers and over 17 talks and posters presented at national scientific meetings (primarily by the interns themselves). The program was highly successful in training future scientists: more than half (56%) of the student interns in our program are currently (2013) in graduate school in the sciences, and all (100%) students who responded to our post-program survey are either in graduate school or employed in the life sciences.
