NYCEP, the New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology, is a graduate research and training program funded for the past 10 years by an NSF Research Training Groups (RTG) award. In drawing faculty from City University of New York, Columbia University, New York University, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Wildlife Conservation Society, NYCEP represents a rare combination of public and private universities together with privately endowed (and publicly assisted) institutions dedicated to bringing science to the public. Our consortium links over 45 faculty whose research perspectives on human and nonhuman primates include comparative morphology, paleontology, systematics, molecular and population genetics, behavior, ecology, and conservation biology. Students take courses in all these areas, attend seminars drawing on the staff of all five institutions, and have multiple opportunities to conduct original research at field sites, laboratories, and museums. NYCEP is unique for the range and diversity of courses and research opportunities that it offers. This IGERT award will further enhance and refocus our successful graduate training program by implementing a series of innovative educational, curricular, and research initiatives, as well as to provide support for the training of a cohort of talented graduate students who would not otherwise benefit from this integrative program.
Since 1992, we have trained 110 students (including 63 females and 15 from groups underrepresented in science) with benefit from NSF/RTG funding, and we awarded 49 Ph.D.s. Of those with direct NYCEP funding, 22 have already received Ph.D.s, and many have obtained high-profile positions in universities, zoos and industry. We will build upon these successes by increasing our emphasis on the following areas: (1) professional development through student presentations and a new course covering the ethical conduct of science, oral and written communication skills, grant application, and job search; (2) student participation in international field research on behavioral ecology, conservation and paleontology; (3) visibility and public awareness, through an annual conference to showcase NYCEP activities and improve science literacy and interest; and (4) outreach to undergraduate, especially minority, students through interaction with college science programs on our campuses and elsewhere. Each of these features will enhance both the intellectual merit and the broader impacts of our program. This IGERT grant and associated university financial aid will support over 35 new students and fund about 180 student-years of graduate education.
IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries. In this sixth year of the program, awards are being made to institutions for programs that collectively span the areas of science and engineering supported by NSF.
is a graduate research and training program funded from 2003-2012 (with no-cost extensions) by an NSF IGERT award. In drawing faculty from City University of New York, Columbia University, New York University, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Wildlife Conservation Society, NYCEP represents a rare combination of public and private universities together with privately endowed (and publicly assisted) institutions dedicated to education and bringing science to the public. NYCEP links over 60 faculty members whose research perspectives on human and nonhuman primates include social behavior, ecology, and conservation; comparative morphology, systematics, and paleontology; and molecular and population genetics and genomics. Students take courses in all these areas, attend seminars drawing on the staff of all five institutions, and have multiple opportunities to conduct original research at international field sites, laboratories, and museums. NYCEP is unique for the range and diversity of courses and research opportunities that it offers. Since 2003, NYCEP has trained over 100 students (including 65% females and 8 from groups underrepresented in science) with benefit from NSF funding and awarded 61 Ph.D.s (13 of whom received at least one full year of funding; of these, two currently hold tenure-track positions, four are teaching and 7 are postdocs). Thirty-four students are actively pursuing the PhD degree at one of the three universities, and several expect to defend their dissertation before the end of 2012. A renewal of IGERT support was awarded in 2010, and new students continue to enter NYCEP (including several who will be enrolled in the new Richard Gilder Graduate School at the American Museum of Natural History, the first museum-based PhD-granting entity in the USA). With IGERT support, NYCEP has made significant advances in both research and training. Novel educational initiatives include: a year-long course dedicated to ethical awareness and professionalism; several conferences showcasing NYCEP faculty and student research (one focused on behavior, ecology, and evolution of monkeys, the other on early human evolution in Africa); required international field-based research experiences; and undergraduate teaching and outreach experiences for PhD students. Special IGERT international funding allowed NYCEP to: 1) train students in working with global field projects and international colleagues in behavior, ecology, conservation and paleontology; and 2) assist student dissertation research at international field, lab and museum sites in these areas and also comparative morphology and genetics. Between 2004 and 2011, 20 NYCEP students worked in 26 countries on organized field projects or their own research projects. Fieldwork programs directed by NYCEP faculty included paleontological projects in Kenya, Tanzania and France, while living primates were studied in Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, South Africa, and Ecuador. Research advances were made by both faculty-led teams and by students in their dissertation projects. Among the latter, several focused on evolution of the limbs and bipedalism and of the skull in human fossils ranging in age from 4 million to 40,000 years ago. Other students studied the evolution of extinct primates in Africa, South America and the Caribbean; the genetics of species differences and conservation problems and aspects of the behavior and ecology of living primates of the Americas and Africa; the skeletal biology and gestural communication of great apes; and genetics of human populations.
