This International Research Experience for Students (IRES) activity links researchers and mentors at Montana State University with Norwegian counterparts at the University of Bergen and the University of Science and Technology, in Trondheim. The technical focus reflects the U.S. and Norwegian team's complementary strengths and mutual interest in three areas: 1) detection, measurement and attribution of climate change against a background of natural variability, 2) mitigation of climate change and its impacts through carbon sequestration and land use, and 3) the economic and policy implications of global climate change. Principal investigator, Steve K. Holmgren, and colleagues from Montana State University will work with Norwegian partners, led by Bjorn Kvamme in Bergen, to manage a balanced, team-based approach to providing undergraduate students with education and research experience in timely areas for examination, climate change and carbon sequestration.
Annually, the collaborative program will provide research experience for four U.S. undergraduate students who will travel to Bergen and Trondheim to work with U.S. and Norwegian mentors, as well as Norwegian students, on topics such as geochemistry, couplings between geochemistry and geomechanics, and strategies related to storage of CO2. Student participants will be assigned projects that are designed to contribute to program-wide research goals as well as their professional development Overall, this cooperative exchange should contribute to both the researchers' and the student participants' understanding of future options for carbon capture and storage as well as the potential of clean energy technologies.
This U.S.-Norway IRES collaboration fulfills the program objective of developing global scientists and engineers by enabling experts in the United States and Europe to combine complementary talents and share research and education resources in an area of strong mutual interest and competence. Broader impacts include the introduction of U.S. students, including Native Americans, to leaders in the international community through a program of study at leading Norwegian research institutions. The educational value of the IRES rests with the students' involvement in their mentors' cutting-edge research and exposure to the opportunities and global challenges associated with carbon capture and sequestration.
