$5000 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 7, 2023.
- 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.
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EEB Faculty Mentors for Summer 2023Faculty 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) Margaret Rubega birds
Field and remote camera studies of common and roseate terns on a field station in Long Island Sound; data curation from the 50 year history of the tern project; feather morphology and biomechanics, especially with respect to feather water repellency and thermal insulation. 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 2023 are due April 7th. Awardees will be announced before April 14th.
- 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)
- The single proposal document should include (optional template):
- 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)
- Please address the following in the letter:
- Questions? Dr. Cory Merow (cory.merow@uconn.edu)