This three-year REU Site program at SUNY at Buffalo will focus on the topic of Ecosystem Restoration from an interdisciplinary perspective. The structure of the program will be closely linked with the ongoing NSF IGERT Traineeship program with the same theme (ERIE-IGERT). Undergraduate students will benefit from ongoing workshops and training opportunities associated with the ERIE-IGERT, and will work within an expanded mentoring community that includes IGERT doctoral trainees. Both the ERIE-IGERT and the proposed ERIE-REU programs are interdisciplinary, with faculty participants from seven academic departments. Both programs are place-based, with the objective of advancing the science and engineering underpinnings of ecosystem restoration through studies focused on the ecological recovery of the lower Great Lakes and Western New York regions. Thus, this ERIE-REU site program will benefit not only the undergraduate REU participants, but other ERIE faculty, professional, and doctoral participants. Formal training in research methods will be followed by individual research organized in three interdisciplinary themes: 1) lake and river restoration, 2) groundwater restoration, and 3) novel treatment applications. This REU Site program also includes an ethics component that will focus on the ethics and values of ecological restoration. Students will attend mid-week group meetings with their research theme co-participants, as well as weekly colloquia with the entire REU cohort, which includes both theme-based research presentations and a weekly field trip and/or social event. Finally, during the last week of the REU program, students will participate in a culminating experience that will bring REU and IGERT students together to present their projects to a diverse academic and professional audience.
The Principal Investigator will recruit broadly from academic programs in engineering and science. The PI will leverage established relationships with minority institutions, the ERIE-IGERT focus on Native American issues, and the leadership of female scholars with established track records of successful undergraduate mentoring.
REU program addresses the important topics of environmental and ecological restoration from an interdisciplinary perspective. Undergraduate REU student participants benefit from ongoing workshops and training opportunities associated with a similarly themed NSF-sponsored doctoral traineeship, including faculty mentors from eight academic departments across two campuses. Most projects emphasized place-based research, with the objective of advancing the science and engineering underpinnings of ecosystem restoration through studies focused on the ecological recovery of the lower Great Lakes and Western New York regions. Formal training in research methods is followed by individual research organized into three interdisciplinary themes: lake and river restoration, groundwater restoration, and sustainable engineering applications. Each theme integrates laboratory, field, and modeling tasks, as well as discussions related to the ethics and values of ecological restoration. The final culminating experience brings together REU students to present their projects to a diverse academic and professional audience; students are also encouraged and supported to engage in post-REU conference presentations. During the 2010-2012 period (three summer cohorts), the ERIE-REU program supported 33 students, including 19 women and 4 students from underrepresented groups. External evaluation indicated a high degree of student satisfaction, and the majority of participants indlcated plans to pursue graduate study in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) fields. Following the completion of their summer program, REU student participants developed and delivered 20 presentations at external academic or professional conferences. External research partners included LaFarge North America and the Tuscarora Nation of Indians Environment Program. Additional ERIE-REU program information is available at www.erie.buffalo.edu/REU.php.
