This REU Site award to the Genome Sciences Department at the University of Washington, located in Seattle, WA, will support the training of 10 students for 10 weeks during the summers of 2020-2022. It is anticipated that a total of 30 students, from across the United States with limited research opportunities and/or from an underrepresented minority group will participate. Students will learn how research is conducted and will present their findings at a poster session at UW. In addition, many students will present their research at scientific conferences. Students will leave the program with experience in programming methods related to biological sciences, enhanced science communication skills, and greater awareness of how to navigate their careers in science. Assessment of the program will be done thru the online SALG URSSA tool, and students will be tracked after the program in order to determine their career paths.
The summer research program provides opportunities to gain outstanding research experience by working with leading researchers in the field of genomics and proteomics at the University of Washington. The program will introduce a wide range of research questions, applications, and career opportunities accessible through big data analysis and computational biology. Research projects span human and model organism genetics, genomics, computational biology, and proteomics. This program will train students to be more effective communicators. They will learn how to share their research findings with other scientists, tell their personal journeys as scientists in PhD applications, and develop skills on how to communicate science principles with the general public. Competitive applicants will have had some college-level science coursework. Applicants from predominantly undergraduate institutions are encouraged to apply. Prior experience with programming is not required, as all students will leave the program having learned introductory programming concepts related to biological datasets. Applicants interested in computational biology labs will be expected to have taken college-level calculus and have basic programming skills. More information about the program is available by visiting www.gs.washington.edu/academics/summer/gssummer/index.htm, or by contacting the PI (Dr. Queitsch, queitsch@u.washington.edu), or the co-PI (Dr. Lesiak, alesiak@uw.edu).
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.
