$7000 each to support (at least) two undergraduate summer research fellowships including salary, travel, or other research expenses!

Students’ research projects should aim to deepen our understanding of global change, broadly defined, by investigating the impacts of environmental changes on species, ecosystems, and human societies, as well as developing innovative strategies for mitigation and adaptation.

• Priority consideration for students from underrepresented groups, or who have overcome obstacles and disadvantages, or have experience with diverse environments.
• Students need not be EEB majors but must demonstrate interest
• Applications due by Friday April 12, 2024.
• Students should develop a research plan with the support of a faculty member from EEB. While students are welcome to reach out to any EEB faculty member, those listed in the table below have confirmed their availability this Summer.

• 
  EEB Faculty Mentors for Summer 2024

  Faculty Mentor	Favorite Organisms	Project Inspiration
  Daniel Bolnick	stickleback fish & their tapeworm parasites	Host/parasite interactions: work on fish dissections to identify parasites, measure skeletal morphology, or conduct DNA extractions and sequencing studies.
  Chris Elphick	birds/plants/insects	Saltmarsh restoration (birds, vegetation, greenhouse gases); EntoGEM (insect decline); urban ecology (insects, trees, birds)
  Colin Kremer	marine and freshwater phytoplankton, microbes	Investigating how light and temperature changes the physiology, growth, and dormancy of sub-Arctic species (lab experiments)
  Louise Lewis	algae, desert algae, symbiotic algae	Diversity of lichen algae and desert algae (DNA sequencing), desert algae adaptations (experiments)
  Karolina Heyduk	flowering plants,  but especially succulents	Testing how environmental conditions affect plant photosynthesis and physiology. Projects can be in the greenhouse, in the lab, at the computer (bioinformatics), or all three!
  Katrina Menard	Insects and Invertebrates	Diversity of Connecticut insects and their distribution: mapping where and when Connecticut’s threatened insects occurred and what that means for their future with changing ecosystems. The two major focus groups: tiger beetles, and dragonflies and damselflies.
  Jill Wegrzyn	trees! conifers, maples, walnuts, beech	Conservation genomics – utilize genetics to understand how how plants are evolving in light of increasing pressures from climate change. Students can work on projects related to genome assembly, genome annotation, population genetics, and more!
  Yaowu Yuan	monkeyflowers (Mimulus)	(i) Genetic mapping of genes responsible for flower size variation between two closely related monkeyflower species with different pollination syndromes; (ii) An activation-tagging mutant screen for monkeyflower mutants with interesting floral trait alterations and subsequent characterization of the mutant genes.

  Applications for Summer 2024 are due April 12th. Awardees will be announced before April 19th.

• Applications should be submitted through this form.
  • The single proposal document should include (optional template):
    • EEB interests and career goals (~500 words)
    • Research Plan (e.g. background, hypotheses/objectives, methods, timeline) (2 pages)
    • Budget describing how funds will be used (.5 page)
• Letter of Support from Faculty Mentor (e-mailed directly to Cory Merow)
  • Please address the following in the letter:
    • Familiarity with the student and the project plan
    • Plans for mentorship
    • Planned deliverables (conference presentations, manuscripts, posters, etc)
• Questions? Dr. Cory Merow (cory.merow@uconn.edu)