The Field Museum REU Site will provide a research program for undergraduates during the summers of 2009-2011. Eight students will be selected each year to participate in an intensive 10-week research program in biodiversity-related and evolutionary biological research. The Field Museum houses one of the world's foremost scientific collections of biological diversity (>25 million specimens) and supports active biodiversity research around the globe. Despite the urgency of the current biodiversity crisis, few educational opportunities exist for students in the biological sciences to interact with scientists and institutions dedicated to the study of organic diversity. Each participant will undertake an independent research project supervised by a museum scientist in a discipline such as taxonomy and systematics, phylo/ biogeography, paleontology, molecular phylogenetics, or conservation. Students will experience biological diversity through the use of the museum's collections in their research and will be trained in project-relevant techniques and equipment such as the scanning electron microscope, various light microscopy set-ups, and equipment in the Pritzker DNA lab. A six-week course in phylogenetic systematics, run concurrently with intern projects, will provide a common theoretical framework for their research, and a symposium at the conclusion of the summer will allow students to present their results to their peers and museum scientists. Providing equal opportunity in biodiversity-related research is an important goal of the program. Additional information can be found at www.fieldmuseum.org/research_collections/scholarships/reu.html or by contacting the Program Director, Dr. Petra Sierwald, psierwald@fieldmuseum.org, telephone 312-665-7744.
The Field Museum (Chicago, IL), one of the premier natural history museums in the country, trained twenty-five undergraduate REU-funded students from across the United States in biodiversity research in botany, zoology and paleontology over a three-year period from 2009 to 2011 as a result of this REU site award. In total, over 600 applications from across the United States were received, indicating the general appeal of the program. Participating undergraduate students, from freshman to juniors, were each mentored by a Field Museum faculty member and became part of the research team of the respective curator, interacting with other undergraduate and high school interns, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Each REU intern conducted a self-contained research project, which was part of the overall research program of the curator and his/her research group. This particular set-up ensured that the REU interns were not only trained in specific methods for data collection and analysis, but also received an overall education of the larger scientific questions of each particular research program. REU interns were exposed to ongoing international collaborations of their mentor’s research program. These included visiting researchers from overseas, and interactions with overseas collaborators via e-mail. The REU intern program included a workshop series in phylogenetic systematics, a topic frequently under-taught at the undergraduate level. The workshop series was developed and taught by Field Museum postdoctoral fellows and focused equally on morphological and molecular data. The workshop was fully interactive, conducted in a computer lab, where students were exposed to and used current phylogenetic software and experimented with GenBank data. The REU interns had unique access to Field Museum’s vast specimen collections for hands-on data collection directly from the specimens, and received organismal training from their taxon-expert mentors. All REU interns were introduced to Field Museum’s specialized library for conducting literature searches, and received training in sophisticated data collection techniques, including scanning electron microscopy, dissection, morphomterics, or extracting, amplifying and sequencing genetic data in Field Museum’s Pritzker molecular lab. All REU interns became proficient in a number of techniques and skills that are clearly beyond class room instruction, thereby increasing their capabilities for further research activities. All REU interns became familiar with collection management, care for collections, responsible specimen handling and data collection, and participated to some degree in digitization efforts. During the three-year period of this project we developed and tested a training program for Responsible Conduct in Research. Field Museum maintains a structured plan for RCR training for all associated researchers, from the HS level to postdoctoral fellows. Alongside these REU interns worked a large group of other undergraduate and high school interns on related projects and in the collections. During the summer internship period, Field Museum conducts a series of events and collection tours, ensuring that the interns gain an overview of the operations, research and educational activities of a premier natural history museum. Several of these events are sponsored and organized by Field Museum Human Resource department and focus on career development, from professional etiquette to guidance for successful applications to graduate school in the sciences. All interns participated in some form of outreach activities, from leading tours in their respective collection and lab area, to generating species pages for the Encyclopedia of Life. All REU interns and several other undergraduate and High School interns presented their research in Field Museum’s annual Undergraduate Research Symposium. During the presentations at the REU Symposium, the advances the students made in phylogenetic concepts and thinking became evident. For many students, this was their first oral presentation in an academic setting. All interns were specifically guided by their mentors and the phylogenetic workshop instructors; all students received feed back of their presentations. All REU alumni have maintained communication with their Field Museum mentors, many have returned during the following semester and the following summer to work with their mentor and finish their project. Several REU interns joined their mentors at national meetings, and have published with their mentors. These collaborations are ongoing. Of the 25 REU interns of the three-year period at least 5 have entered graduate school in Harvard, the Richard Gilder Graduate School at the American Museum of Natural History, Indiana University, and MIT.
