This award will support the participation of ten undergraduate biology students each year, the majority of whom are expected to be African-American, in the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program offered by the Mt. Desert Island biologicalLaboratory in Salsbury Cove, Maine. This program, will allow each student to spend eight weeks working at the bench, paired with a senior scientist leading a research team working on timely questions involving marine physiology. Using sharks, skates, flounder and other sea animals, students will explore questions at the mechanistic level concerning reproduction, osmoregulation, acid base balance and ion transport. Orientation lectures on basic concepts of marine physiology and molecular biology during the first week will be supplemented by weekly evening lectures on these subjects designed to encourage discussion by the students. Undergraduates will attend three weekly laboratory-wide science seminars on topics related to marine physiology. They will participate in a campus-wide ethics course taught by expert lecturers and by group discussions of cases illustrating the ethical issues with which scientists are confronted. Four noontime discussions led by knowledgeable ethicists and involving REU students and their mentors will address subjects such as the use of animals and humans as research subjects, ethics of genetics research and environmental ethics. The research experience will be completed by each student giving a talk to the laboratory community on his/her results and writing a research paper for publication in the laboratory Bulletin. This award will foster the continued education and training of individuals who will be part of the next generation of basic researchers in marine physiology. It will also help to inform young citizens about ethical questions in science and aspects of management and decision making in environmental issues.
