Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Climate Change Modeling • MBL • Marine Ecology and Conservation •Field Research in Alaska • REUs • Hurricane Impacts

A historical reconstruction of hurricane impacts in the Gulf Coast of Mexico (1950-2005)

We are looking to hire a National Science Foundation funded undergraduate through the Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) program for 10 weeks over the summer 2008. The student will develop a research project related to a larger project to study the patterns of hurricane impacts onthe in the Gulf Coast of Mexico. This effort is part of an interdisciplinary land-use change research program that examines the linkages between hurricane frequency and impacts on the social and natural environment. The REU student will participate in the main facets of the project which include assisting in assembling and analyzing multiple datasets needed to parameterize our hurricane damage models. These datasets include historical hurricane related wind damage reports from contemporary newspapers in the Golf Coast, and surface weather wind database. Additional responsibilities include assisting the research team to analyze and convert the datasets into meaningful damage indices, and integrate the information within a GIS. We seek an undergraduate student with skills in data management, library and archive research, who is thorough and detail oriented, and with basic familiarity in GIS preferred (additional GIS training will be provided as needed). The REU position is available starting June 1, 2008.Please contact Prof. Steven Hamburg (Steven_Hamburg@Brown.edu) for further information

Marine Ecology & Conservation Science

We are seeking undergraduate collaborators with strong interests in ecology, environmental science, economics and/or policy to contribute to projects in Fall 2008 under the guidance of Professor Heather Leslie.

Possible topics include:

Population and community ecology of New England marine intertidal species
Trade offs among different sectors and ecosystem services to inform ocean management
Social and ecological indicators of marine management success

While preference for some of these topics will be given to students interested in carrying out a senior thesis project, others are more appropriate for rising sophomores and juniors.

For more information, please send a brief email to Professor Leslie describing your interests and relevant experience. No attachments please.

Climate Change Modeling

globe with many colored cells Professor Marston has an opening for an undergraduate to work on a climate modeling project. The idea is to access directly the statistics of simplified models of the Earth's atmosphere by using ideas from statistical physics, and to compare the statistics so obtained to those found by the traditional approach of calculating long-time averages. See the paper: Statistics of an Unstable Barotropic Jet from a Cumulant Expansion in the J. Atmos. Sci. (in press) for more details.

Familiarity with basic physics and the ability to program computers is required. PHYS1600, offered Spring 2008, would provide the necessary background. Preference will be given to students interested in carrying out a senior thesis project.

Contact Professor Marston to learn more.

Toolik Lake Long Term Ecological Research (LTER), Alaska

Brooks Range - Alaska Undergraduates or college graduates interested in ecological research in remote Alaska are invited to apply for paid positions and research fellowships for Summer 2008. The fellowships are for second and third-year undergraduates as part of the National Science Foundation's Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program.

The REU and research assistants will work closely with a group of scientists on projects from microbial ecology to the linkage of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems via the movement of carbon and nitrogen.

Dates: 5th June to 25th August 2008.

Submit a resume, a one-page description of goals and background and names of references to:

George Kling
E-mail: gwk@umich.edu
Fax: 734-763-0544

For more information:
http://ecosystems.mbl.edu/ARC/
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gwk/
http://www.uaf.edu/toolik/

The Ecosystems Center/Marine Biological Laboratory

The Ecosystems Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory often has opportunities for summer research assistants and research experience for undergraduate (REU) positions. Occasionally these projects involve field work in Alaska, Brazil, or other remote locations. When they become available, they are posted on the MBL employment web site under summer or research positions. Summer positions usually become available in about March.

Brooks Range

Research Experience for Undergraduates

The NSF funds a large number of research opportunities for undergraduate students through its REU Sites program. Over the next few months, many REU sites across the country will be looking for promising undergraduate students to participate in summer reserach. An REU Site consists of a group of ten or so undergraduates who work in the research programs of the host institution. Each student is associated with a specific research project, where he/she works closely with the faculty and other researchers. Students are granted stipends and, in many cases, assistance with housing and travel.

NSF maintains a listing of all REU sites by research category. Interested students should contact the sites directly - deadlines may vary.

A few sites that may be of particular interest to Brown students pursuing environmental research: