This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) award to the University of Iowa supports an interdisciplinary graduate training program designed to train students to use advanced computational methods to address real-world problems in environmental science and energy production.
This novel Ph.D. training program uses team-based research projects, internships, and international research experiences to produce a new generation of quantitative and computational scientists who are prepared for interdisciplinary collaboration with engineers, social and natural scientists, government policy-makers, and industrial leaders in the global arena of environment and energy production. Geoinformatics--the science of measuring, storing, managing, analyzing and visualizing data related to phenomena occurring on or near the earth's surface--plays a key unifying role in the curriculum. Applications include prevention, control, and mitigation of floods; remediation of air, soil, and water contamination; and increasing wind and hydroelectric energy production--challenges that directly impact human health, safety, and quality of life. The project will broaden the participation of students from populations underrepresented in the science, technology, engineering and mathematical fields (women, U.S. ethnic minorities, and low-income and rural students) through coordination with established and successful recruitment programs at the University of Iowa, offering these students a unique program of innovative science, policy, and technology-based rotations. Student and faculty research results will contribute new computational tools and methods as well as scientific insights that will support the formulation of new environmental policy at the local, regional, national, and global scales.
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.
