NSF REU Fellow

Eligibility

To be considered for the NSF REU, applicants must meet all of the criteria listed below:

Non-USD

1. Current community college student
2. Interested in pursuing a science (life and physical), technology (computer science), engineering or math degree
3. Have had few or no opportunities to do research
   
4. U.S. citizen, U.S. National, permanent resident of the U.S.

USD

1. Current USD student that has transferred from community college and/or a veteran student
2. Students interested in pursuing a science (life and physical), technology (computer science), engineering or math degree
3. Students that have had few or no opportunities to do research
4. U.S. citizen, U.S. National, permanent resident of the U.S.

Preference will be given to applicants:

• Veteran of the armed forces/ROTC (Non-USD)
• Students that are from underrepresented populations in STEM (NSF definition)
• Students from low socioeconomic backgrounds
• Students that are first generation to go to college

Registering as an Undergraduate Researcher

The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) supports all students engaged in undergraduate research/scholarship/creative works. As a way to connect students and their mentors with the resources available to them, all undergraduate researchers (USD and non-USD students) are required to register as an undergraduate researcher. This requirement includes students engaged in extracurricular, academic year or summer, paid or volunteer/unpaid research positions; it does not include students conducting research as part of a course.

Policy on IRB and IACUC Project Approvals

Any awarded NSF REU project that involves human (IRB) or animal subjects must receive formal approval from the appropriate USD research ethics committee. A human subject or animal subjects approved IRB or IACUC letter (showing all necessary signatures) must be submitted no later than the research start date.  Additionally, a human subject or animal subjects training course must be taken and a copy of the training completion certificate must be received by the OUR before any awarded project funds will be approved for distribution.  Undergraduate researchers should work with their research mentor to submit the required materials to the appropriate committee.

Research Ethics & Integrity Training

All students and faculty mentors who are awarded a NSF REU grant must complete a Research Ethics & Integrity Training before any money can be awarded. Faculty and students who have previously taken the training do not have take it again.  A copy of the certificate of completion must be received by the OUR before any awarded project funds will be approved for distribution.

Progress Reports and Evaluation Surveys

Each NSF REU fellow is required to submit 1) summary/statement of your research by September 1, 2015 to ugresearch@sandiego.edu. While your research summary is student driven, you are expected to seek out and incorporate feedback from your research mentor BEFORE submitting it to the Office of Undergraduate Research. Since the research summary/statement is discipline-specific you will work with your research mentor for guidelines as to the correct formatting for your discipline. Generally, the research summary/statement should be ~2-5 pages in length not including figures and literature cited. 2.) complete a pre- and end-of-program evaluation survey. Faculty mentors are required to complete a pre- and end-of-program online evaluations in lieu of a summary report.  

USD Undergraduate Research Conference Presentation

USD NSF REU fellows are expected to present their research at Creative Collaborations, USD's Undergraduate Research Conference, in the spring following their summer research.  All NSF REU participants should acknowledge the NSF as a funding source. ***Non-USD students that cannot participate in Creative Collaborations because of other obligations may be exempt***

The application window is closed. 

Review Procedures

All applications will be evaluated by a NSF REU Review Committee. Top candidates will be invited for an interview. All interviews will be conducted remotely using Skype or Google Hangout.

Notifications will be sent on or before April 7, 2017.

Application Requirements

1. Online Form - Click on the button below that describes you best, USD or Non-USD student.

• Motivation Statement -  

  500 words or less, copy and paste to the online form from a word document

  The Motivation Statement (MS) should address how you feel that participation in the NSF-REU will help you attain your academic and career goals.  Please also address how you meet the eligibility requirements.

• Unofficial Transcript** - Submitted as a upload on the application/online form

4. Letter of Recommendation - Letters of recommendation should be from a faculty, counselor or any prior mentors.  This must be emailed directly to ugresearch@sandiego.edu.

Subject Line: NSF REU Letter of Recommendation

File Name: Last name, First name_NSFREU_LOR

IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO MAKE SURE THE LETTER IS SUBMITTED BY THE DEADLINE; APPLICATIONS WITHOUT LETTERS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED.

Rae Anderson, Ph.D. - Department of Physics

Creating multifunctional renewable biomaterials from DNA

The Anderson lab is designing, producing, and characterizing DNA-based materials that can serve to combat the growing synthetic material production and consumable waste that is contributing to climate change. Students working on this project will be involved in exciting interdisciplinary research, which will give them a true sense of what it means to be a scientific researcher. They will become proficient in a wide range of techniques from biology, optics, materials science, physics and engineering.
DNA - the genetic code for nearly all life - exists in a wide range of lengths, and can be linear, circular or supercoiled. When DNA molecules are at high concentrations, crowding and entangling one other, the resulting gel-like substance has fascinating multifunctional properties similar to those of our cells. These DNA-based materials behave both as solids (elastic) and fluids (viscous) depending on how they are stressed or strained. DNA materials are also completely biologically-based, biodegradable, renewable - and can be produced simply by using the machinery of bacterial cells. Thus, DNA-based biomaterials offer a promising avenue for green materials of the future.

The first part of the summer project, students will learn to produce DNA materials. By taking advantage of rapid bacterial cell replication we can produce large quantities of DNA starting with a single cell. Students will then design different DNA materials by altering the properties of the DNA they are producing. By varying the DNA length, shape and concentration we can produce a wide range of materials with different properties. Finally, students will characterize the mechanical properties of the DNA materials - determining how elastic and viscous they are. The Anderson lab specializes in using fluorescence microscopy and laser tweezers to investigate the material properties of biological soft matter at the molecular level. Students will use these techniques to apply microscopic strains to DNA materials and measure the force the DNA exerts to resist the strain. Students will also image single DNA molecules in the material to track how they are deformed. Each phase of the project will require the students to become more independent and think more like scientists. The extent to which students will be using quantitative skills and problem solving will increase as well, culminating in computational data analysis and interpretation of their data.

Timothy Clark, Ph.D. - Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Designing and Developing New Catalysts for the Reduction of Carbon Dioxide to Methanol

This research project aims to develop a catalyst that is highly active in the reduction of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, to methanol, a known fuel source. The group has developed a metal-catalyzed reaction that leads to the synthesis of a variety of phosphine-substituted arylboronate esters (Scheme 1a).  Similar phosphine boronate esters have been shown to be active catalysts in the reduction of carbon dioxide to a methanol derivative using a borane source (Scheme 1b).  The ability to access various scaffolds of these reactive complexes will be used to determine the relationship between the structure of the phosphine boronate ester with the reactivity in carbon dioxide reduction. The long-term goal of the project is to develop a catalyst that is capable of mediating the reduction using dihydrogen to directly access methanol from carbon dioxide.

Students will be exposed to the concepts of catalysis and relate this concept to the environmental impact of greenhouse gases, providing a unique perspective on the role that a small amount of a reusable catalyst can play on a global scientific challenge. Students will learn how to synthesize air-sensitive phosphines and to quantify the effectiveness of a catalyst for the reduction of carbon dioxide. Students will be exposed to many new techniques in the handling of air-sensitive compounds and gases, and will learn to characterize isolable products and reactive intermediates. They will be encouraged to think critically about this project, reading and presenting relevant literature, and will move toward working independently as a scientist.
 
*Figure omitted*

Daniel Codd, Ph.D. - Department of Mechanical Engineering

Hybrid Solar Converters: Dispatchable Energy for a Sustainable Future

Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar provide clean, sustainable electricity, but only when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. Direct generation with these intermittent sources can be unpredictable and changes much more rapidly than that of fossil-fueled power plants. Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plants with energy storage are ideal for supplying dispatchable renewable power; however, current designs are modestly efficient and resource intensive resulting in levelized costs of energy far exceeding fossil-powered plants.

Student researchers will support the design, testing and validation of a new class of hybrid photovoltaic-concentrating solar power (PV-CSP) receivers with integral thermal storage. These systems enable efficient solar collection with both electrical and thermal outputs. Students will be involved in multiple aspects of the project – from fundamental optical experiments to component and system-level design and modeling. Students will conduct laboratory characterization of subsystems and assist with on-sun full system testing. Hands-on skills and an enjoyment of the design-prototype-test-iterate cycle are mandatory! Students will learn how to prepare experiments, log, analyze and present data. They will also be introduced to CAD (SolidWorks) and given safety training and hands-on instruction in the ME design and manufacturing student shops.  As these efforts tie into larger, multi-institution (USD, SDSU, MIT, Tulane, Masdar Institute) collaborative programs, students will be able to contribute to a very exciting interdisciplinary R&D team.

David De Haan, Ph.D. - Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Absorbing Aerosol Formation: Assessing Brown Carbon Formation During Oxidation in Clouds and Aerosol

Every time a cloud droplet forms in the atmosphere, small aldehyde molecules, oxidants, and other volatile, water-soluble gases dissolve into the droplet.  Our lab explores what happens next.  Within a few minutes, a typical droplet leaves the cloud and re-evaporates.  If the small molecules in the droplet have combined into larger “oligomers,” the result is an aerosol haze particle that can float around the atmosphere for several days.  Some of the organic compounds dissolved in cloud droplets can also combine to form light-absorbing products known as “brown carbon.” By absorbing sunlight, brown carbon particles contribute to climate change at a regional to global level, and so are an especially undesirable type of haze particle. 
 
The oxidation of small aldehydes by the hydroxyl radical, a process that can produce aerosol-phase oligomers, but not brown carbon, is believed to be the major aqueous-phase loss process of aldehydes in the atmosphere.  At the same time, droplet evaporation causes aldehydes to react with amines and ammonium salts to form nitrogen-containing brown carbon products.  Do these two processes combine when all these substances are present at the same time?  The proposed project will determine whether aldehyde oxidation in the presence of ammonium salts and amine compounds can produce brown carbon through fast, radical-based reaction pathways. 
 
The undergraduate researcher will first learn to generate and work safely with aerosol particles and UV radiation.  They will then create solutions that simulate cloud water, generate hydroxyl radicals through UV photolysis of hydrogen peroxide, and study the resulting reactions through a combination of bulk and aerosol-phase optical techniques.  UV-vis absorbance and fluorescence spectrometers will be used to monitor the production of brown carbon, and the results will be compared with the earlier work of the group on aldehyde-amine reactions in the absence of oxidants.  They will quantify the acceleration of the production of brown carbon by droplet evaporation using a new cavity-attenuated phase shift single-scattering albedo spectrometer, which measures aerosol extinction and scattering at 450 nm in the same volume.  While mastering the above activities, the undergraduate researcher will also learn to use Igor and Excel programs to analyze and summarize complex data sets (including correcting aerosol data for the presence of multiply-charged particles), and present their results to collaborating team members and other scientists. Other team members will be performing chemical, spectroscopic, and hygroscopic analytical techniques on similar chemical systems in order to determine reaction pathways, optical properties, and cloud condensation potentials of the reaction products.

Jane Friedman, Ph.D. - Department of Mathematics and Computer Science

Statistical Methods Of Detecting Change In Data

Climate data, like most real data, is noisy with much random variation.  In noisy data sets it can be hard to pick out underlying patterns and to detect changes in those patterns.  This project will work on developing statistical techniques which can be used with noisy data.
 
This project will involve the development and testing of methods of detecting qualitative changes in data, a type of model selection problem.  A change point in a model is a point where the parameters of the model change significantly in value. Models with no change points will be compared to models of a similar type with one or more change points. The goal will be the development of objective and efficient computational methods of choosing among such a set of models.
 
The method is computationally intensive. First a model without a change point is fit to the data.   Call this model M. Then a change point model is fit to the data, this model will have more parameters than the original model.   The null hypothesis is that the increase in fit of the change point model can be accounted for merely by the increase in the number of parameters.  A p-value is generated to test this hypothesis by repeatedly simulating data which fits model M, and then also fitting change point models to the simulated data.  The increase in fit in the real data can be compared to the increase in fit in the simulated data sets.  So far these methods have been applied to fitting linear or piecewise linear models.   For the students, the first step will be to understand this previous work. Once this is accomplished, they will have the opportunity to develop their own variants of the technique applying it to different kinds of models. Ideally the methods will be used to analyze data generated by other participants in the REU.

Sarah Gray, Ph.D. - Department of Environmental and Ocean Sciences

The Impact of Climate Change on the Delivery of Land-based Pollution to Coral Reefs in the Caribbean

Declines in live coral reef cover over the past 20 years in the US Virgin Islands (USVI) have been linked to land-based sedimentation.   Land-based sedimentation is harmful to coral reefs because it delivers dissolved nutrients and suspended particulate matter that can negatively affect coral health, growth, coverage, diversity and abundance and reproduction.   Watershed development may enhance sediment delivery into coastal waters by increasing erosion from roadbeds and cut slopes near residential areas.  Sedimentation may also make corals more vulnerable to climate-related stressors such as bleaching due to elevated sea-surface temperatures or ocean acidification.  The aim of the research in this group is to investigate how climate change (specifically, projected changes in the frequency and intensity of storms)  and increased development with population growth may affect sedimentation on coral reefs at our study site.  To address this aim, the group will first examine the relationship between rainfall, runoff, and ocean energy (currents, tides and swell) and marine sediment dynamics over the past 2-7 years.  From 2007-2014, in collaboration with other scientists (UT Austin, Univ. Virgin Islands, CSU Northridge) and community environmental managers, the group regularly monitored marine sedimentation monthly and during major storm events at shore and reef sites on St. John, USVI.   Over the past two years, the group also monitored runoff, rainfall, turbidity and ocean energy at higher temporal resolution (hourly).  This monitoring has produced an extensive database of hydrologic and oceanographic data as well as sediment and water samples, which are available for REU student projects.  

Over the seven-year USVI research program, 18 USD undergraduate students have completed research projects and many have presented their results in professional meetings and/or as co-authors on professional publications.  For this REU, students may pose research questions focused on how one of the following independent variables affects one or more parameters of marine sedimentation.  Students may choose to examine how variable hydrologic (rainfall, runoff), geographic (watershed characteristics, soil, degree of development), or hydrographic (currents, waves, tides) conditions have affected marine sedimentation (composition, grain-size/texture, sedimentation rate) or water quality (turbidity, nutrients).  They will use their results to make predictions about how marine sedimentation may change in the future under various predicted scenarios of changing climate (storm magnitude/frequency) or land use associated with population increase.  Student research may involve fieldwork in the USVI to collect data, laboratory chemical/geological analysis of sediments or water samples, processing and reduction of instrumental data, and statistical analysis.  The scope of the research projects will be limited such that data collection will be completed in the first half of the summer so students have ample time for data analysis and presentation.  Results from student projects will be shared with collaborators studying the ecology of the reefs at our study sites as well as community environmental managers.  Ultimately the research aim is to foster an understanding of how the linkages between watershed processes and marine sedimentation may change in the future.  Lessons learned may inform the development of sound watershed management plans to mitigate the impact of sedimentation and climate change on Caribbean coral reefs.

Truc Ngo, Ph.D. - Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering 

Impacting Climate Change through Sustainable Engineering Materials and Processing Methods

The ultimate goal of this research project is to develop advanced composite materials with specialized properties for biomedical applications using alternative materials processing methods with non-toxic, earth-abundant solvents. The method of interest utilizes CO₂ as a recyclable processing medium, reducing the need for expensive carbon capturing and storage technologies, and ultimately reducing direct C-emission into the environment. C-emission is known to be one of the major contributors to global warming and climate change.

Students will be assisting with the project to develop drug-impregnated poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) composites using 3D printing technology and supercritical carbon dioxide processing. The ‎initial PMMA composite samples will be prepared using selective laser sintering 3D printing method through an external research partner. USD group will focus on the supercritical carbon dioxide processing of PMMA composites with selective anti-inflammatory drugs. The developed materials have potential applications in tissue engineering and other related biomedical uses. In addition to positive environmental impacts, the nontraditional materials processing method developed in this research project will help eliminate the need to remove toxic, organic solvents from biocomposite materials, which are typically present in traditional processing methods, prior to implementation inside human body.

The summer REU student will be engaged in different aspects of the research process. This could include designing, setting up and executing experiments, collecting and analyzing data to determine the process feasibility for each material system. Subsequently, a more thorough study of the fundamental effects of process parameters on the final material properties will be needed for further process optimization. The student may also be performing literature research, working with vendors and other groups (internal and external to USD) to acquire necessary tools needed for the project, summarizing the work and disseminating the results to a broader research community. Student will learn not only how to test her/his engineering design ideas and research hypotheses throughout the experimental process, but also how to solve problems in a team environment in the most efficient ways.

Joseph Provost, Ph.D. - Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Playing Creator: Making Bacteria Respond to Environmental Toxins

As global climate change impacts our water and food stores, the need to find and test water sources in a simple fashion is increasing.  Sadly some of our possible water supplies are tainted with metals and other compounds that are expensive and time consuming to detect.  Research in my laboratory will take advantage of molecular biology tools to “borrow” parts of genes and DNA from several organisms to create a “new” bacteria (called synthetic biology) which will detect the presence of environmental compounds in a cost-friendly approach.  Students on this project will learn to clone and manipulate DNA to make a bacteria respond and turn color when grown with samples containing environmental toxins.  Simply put, you will get to create a new version of a life form to help us detect when there are “bad things” in the ground water.

Adam Haberman, Ph.D. - Department of Biology

A rise in temperature results in increased cellular stress, including oxidative stress.  Many studies have found an increase in markers of oxidative stress in animals raised at higher temperatures, especially in marine animals.  In increase in ocean temperatures is therefore likely to significantly increase oxidative stress in marine life.  Oxidative stress is a causative agent of cellular aging and neurodegeneration.  The focus of this project is to elucidate the mechanisms by which neuronal cells respond to these stresses. 
Unlike other types of cells, most neurons cannot be replaced if they are become damaged.  Therefore, neurons live longer than other cells and have developed a number of protective mechanisms to cope with the stresses of long life.  When these protective mechanisms fail, neurons accumulate damage and ultimately degenerate.  We have previously identified genes whose expression in neurons, but not in all cells, increases with age in the sea slug Aplysia californica and the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.  Some of these genes are makers for oxidative stress, including glutathione-S-transferase.  We propose that these genes are part of a neuron-specific or neuron-enriched system of protection against oxidative stress.

In this project, students will use genetic techniques to knock down expression of these genes in Drosophila melanogaster photoreceptor neurons, and measure the sensitivity of these neurons to oxidative stress.  They will grow the flies in the presence or absence of paraquat, which is an established method for increasing oxidative stress in Drosophila.   Students will then assay the amount of neurodegeneration of photoreceptors by dissecting off the eyes and analyzing them with a confocal microscope.  This project will help students to develop technical and analytical skills, as they use their data to determine which of the tested genes protect against neurodegeneration.  Their work will also be the foundation for long-term studies into the genes they determine to be most interesting.

Drew Talley, Ph.D. - Department of Environmental and Ocean Sciences

A Fish Tale: Predicting Alterations to Coastal Communities in the Face of Climate Change

Recent estimates predict sea level may rise from 10 cm to 56 cm by 2050 in California,  where intertidal ecosystems are typically a mere 0 – 150 cm above sea level. Depending upon sediment accretion rates, predicted rates of sea level rise may therefore submerge much of the current wetland area over the next century, making our already endangered wetlands even scarcer. In that same period, sea surface temperatures (SST) are expected to rise by as much as 1° C which, along with altered rainfall patterns, has the potential to fundamentally alter the communities using those wetlands.  However, we lack the ability to predict the presence and relative abundance of particular species in shifting communities - as can be seen by the often unexpected outcomes in many restoration efforts.  We plan to use the strengthening El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event as a window into the future of southern California wetlands, as the manifold changes associated with ENSO (increased SST, altered environmental conditions affecting organisms near their thermal limits, increased rainfall, higher tides) often mirror those of longer-term climate change.   The group plans to study Kendall-Frost wetland in San Diego's Mission Bay. This site has a number of advantages for examining this issue: 1) it is a natural reserve, and as such is far less altered than other nearby wetlands, 2) there is an abundance of long-term data from this site, including fish surveys (>20 years), plant surveys (>35 years), and macroinvertebrate surveys (~25 years).  This work will leverage these long-term data, and associated temperature and precipitation records, to examine changes in ichthyofaunal communities in the marsh due to the ENSO event, and correlate those with past transient changes (e.g., during the 1998 ENSO) and predicted future alterations to the community.  By better understanding the factors affecting the marsh community on smaller spatial and temporal scales of an ENSO event, we can then improve our ability to predict future changes that may occur with global climate change, and investigate the ramifying effects throughout the ecosystem.

The project will intensively engage REU students, providing them with a range of technical and research skills that will deepen as the summer progresses. While the study ultimately makes inferences across broad spatial and temporal scales, the mechanistic aspects of the study require analyses across small and regional scales. Students will be challenged to develop the ability to move across these scales conceptually. Further, while each student will focus on a subset of analyses, they will be explicitly integrated into the broader overlying goals, and will develop an understanding of the multi-scale factors that interact with their own part of the larger study Lastly, the group will add to tje long term dataset in Mission Bay, allowing them to be used for subsequent studies by researchers and students.

Ryan McGorty, Ph.D. - Department of Physics

Direct Observation of Phase Transitions Using Colloidal Particles and Holographic Microscopy

Condensation, evaporation, freezing and sublimation are all examples of phase transitions. As our climate warms, it is of increasing practical importance that we understand the fundamental physics of how these transitions proceed. Yet, on the microscopic scale, much remains unknown about phase transitions and this is partly due to our inability to observe the individual atoms or molecules coming together to birth a new phase or falling apart so that a phase vanishes. Fortunately, we can use a model system that is more readily observable: colloids. Colloidal systems—suspensions of micron-sized particles in liquid—exhibit behavior analogous to molecular or atomic systems. One can think of these colloidal particles as “big atoms” that, under the right conditions, will aggregate into liquid droplets or crystallize into solids. And, most importantly, these colloidal particles may be directly observed under the microscope. Yet, just because these colloidal particles can be observed does not mean they are easy to observe. Observing their fast dynamics in a three-dimensional system is challenging with standard microscopes. Therefore, we will build a digital holographic microscope. By recording holograms of our samples we will be able, with some computation, to observe the dynamics of our colloidal particles over an extended volume. Student researchers will help construct the digital holographic microscope. This will involve aligning lasers, positioning lenses and mirrors, and fabricating sample holders. In addition to such hands-on optics, students will learn in detail how light interacts with matter and how the wave nature of light leads to image formation in a microscope. Such knowledge will then be applied when it comes time to analyze the holograms which are, in essence, interference patterns. The analysis is computationally demanding and students should expect a crash course in scientific programming. There will also be work preparing colloidal samples and developing recipes that will drive those colloidal particles to aggregate or crystallize.

Joan Schellinger, Ph.D - Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry 

“Green” synthesis of Peptide-Based Polymers via Microwave-Assisted RAFT Polymerization

Green chemistry refers to the synthesis and development of chemical products and methodology while reducing or eliminating the utility or production of unsafe substances. It involves processes that are considered sustainable and environmentally friendly for several reasons such as: 1) maximum yield from a reaction, 2) use of safe materials and 3) energy efficient. Research involving green chemistry impacts global issues such as climate change, energy production and environmental pollutants.1 Our group will investigate the reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization of various peptide macromononers using microwave irradiation (Figure 1). RAFT polymerization is a technique that allows for the design and synthesis of diverse polymeric structures including biodegradable ones. The process itself is considered “green” because it allows for the synthesis of the product that contains the highest proportion of the starting materials with limited waste.2 The use of microwave heating allows for the energy- efficient preparation of biodegradable peptide-based polymers that require higher temperature. The project involves the synthesis of different biocompatible peptide macromonomers followed by investigating an efficient polymerization method via RAFT with and without microwave heating. The final phase will involve polymerization of the different peptide macromonomers to investigate a correlation between polymerization efficiency and varied peptide structure. Ultimately, the successful preparation of peptide-based polymers will allow for the development of new biocompatible materials with unique macromolecular conformations that can have potential application such as synthetic biosurfactants for oil recovery or remediation. Students will be playing major roles in the proposed research. Students will not only learn the concept of green chemistry but will be involved in a research project that is considered “green”. They will synthesize, purify and characterize biocompatible and biodegradable peptides and polymers. Students will incorporate both green and organic chemistry via microwave- assisted solid phase peptide synthesis and RAFT polymerization. They will have hands-on instrumental experience on a microwave reactor, HPLC, MS, GPC and NMR. The training and skills that students obtain will hone their critical thinking to becoming independent researchers.

Nathalie Reyns, Ph.D - Department of Environmental and Ocean Sciences

The impacts of changing environmental conditions on marine invasive species

Marine invasive species have rapidly increased within coastal habitats due to introductions via global shipping. This, coupled with rising ocean temperatures due to global climate change, may act to expand invasive species ranges, and result in their persistence in new regions. We seek to evaluate the impact of the invasive spaghetti bryozoan within Mission Bay, a southern California estuary. Spaghetti bryozoans colonize natural (seagrass) and anthropogenic (docks) structures and may out-compete native species by rapidly growing when temperatures increase seasonally. Our group will evaluate the spatial distribution of spaghetti bryozoan within habitats in Mission Bay. Additionally, laboratory experiments will be conducted to determine the impact of changing environmental conditions such as temperature and salinity on this species. Students will have the opportunity to participate in field work, design and execute laboratory experiments, and learn important analytical skills to better understand how changing environmental conditions in the face of climate change might impact marine communities.

Undergraduate researchers* in the following programs will be enrolled in the Undergraduate  Research 496 course (UGRS 496);the Office of Undergraduate Research will enroll you.

SURE

Beckman

Keck

Changemaker Summer Research Fellows/Community Based Research (CBR)

McNair

NSF REU  

*current/continuing USD students only

NSF REU Scholars will receive a housing credit that will pay for on-campus housing from June 5-August 11, 2017 (70 days).  Costs above and beyond the 70 days will be charged at a 50% reduced rate and will be the responsibility of the student.

Students will work directly with Residential Life to make their housing arrangements and all questions regarding summer housing should be directed to Residential Life. Be sure to add "summer research scholar" and "NSF REU Scholar" in the comment section of the housing application.

The Summer Housing Application

Applications for summer housing are available in late April. Billing for housing is done on the 15th of the month (if applicable). Students will not be billed at check-in and instead will receive their first bill at the same time as they receive their stipend payments.

Earliest move-in date: June 4th, 2017

Latest move-out Date: August 12th, 2017

Rate: $18/day (multiple occupancy)

The move-in and move-out dates are firm and are in place to allow time to prep after spring term ends and before fall term begins.

If you are not a USD student, please contact Candace Torrey at ctorrey@sandiego.edu to obtain your housing application after you have registered as an undergraduate researcher. 

Distribution of Awards:

Students conducting research as part of the NSF REU program are 1) not considered employees, 2) do not report hours worked and 3) will receive a stipend. 

Getting Paid:

Undergraduate researchers will be paid monthly on the 15th (June, July, August).  Please pick up your paycheck at the Cashier's Office in Hughes 211; be sure to bring a picture ID.  If you have any issues, please contact Maritza Castellanos at mcastellanos@sandiego.edu immediately.

Reimbursements:

Please contact Maritza Castellanos at mcastellanos@sandiego.edu to be reimbursed for expenses associated with travel to and from campus.

***IMPORTANT FINANCIAL AID IMPLICATIONS***

Only applicable if you are a USD student currently receiving financial aid:

This award will be part of your overall financial aid package. Listed below is the amount of funding you can receive for summer 2017 (based on housing), anything above the amounts listed below MAY impact your academic year financial aid package.  If you have any concerns about the impact of the award, please contact the Office of Financial Aid at onestop@sandiego.edu.

At home: $1,006/month

Off campus: $1,793/month

On campus: $1,858/month (actual will vary depending on housing selected or any special rates assessed for summer)

Taxes

Student stipends are taxable and subject to withholding. Please contact the Payroll Office at 619-260-4818 for more information about possible exemption from withholding.

For current NSF REU Scholars only:

All activities are mandatory and require your RSVP.

Link to the 2017 NSF REU Calendar.

View the 2017 NSF Agreement form.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact the office at ugresearch@sandiego.edu.

Q: Can I engage in research after receiving my acceptance into the program?
A: You cannot engage in research until you have registered as a researcher, or completed the CITI training. 

Q: Where can I go to complete the training? 
A: Please review the CITI instructions manual on instructions on how to register for CITI Training. 

Q: When are the training and registration as a researcher due?
A: Everything is due by the first day that the programs begin. 

Q: How will I know that I have been accepted into the program?
A: Students will be notified of acceptance by April 9th, 2016. 

Q: How do I go about finding a mentor? Is there a list I can go by?
A: Please visit our Creative Collaborations page and check out our past Abstracts books, where you will find projects that mentors have participated in.