CRITICAL ZONE COLLABORATIVE NETWORK RESEARCH EXPERIENCES FOR UNDERGRADUATES (CZNET-REU)

This program will place undergraduate students at one of the nearly 50 CZ Network research sites distributed in diverse geographic settings across the continental US. Critical Zone science is becoming more important as we try to understand the Earth’s living skin, from the top of the vegetation canopy to the depths of the groundwater and all the interactions taking place within that shape our environment and all life within it.

Your training involves:

• Developing research knowledge and skills, as well as interest in Critical Zone (CZ) science.

• Learning to do interdisciplinary and collaborative science in a network.

• Connecting CZ science to society.

Benefits of the program:

• Network-wide exchange of data, information, and learning from students and researchers across the Critical Zone Collaborative Network.

• Paid research experience: $6,000 stipend, travel subsidy, and housing/meals subsidy, travel to and from kick-off meeting, research funds to support project.

The program begins with a three-day kick-off Meeting at a central location where students will get to know each other and the leadership team, learn about CZ issues and research approaches, and begin exploring the connections between CZ science and society. Each student will spend the remainder of the ten-week program at an institution in the CZ Network. There, they will work closely with a mentor scientist and their research lab group to design and carry out a project focusing on one of many environmental problems important to society. During the summer, the cohort of students will meet virtually 2-3 times each week to stay connected to each other, participate in science communication and other types of training, work on collaborative team projects, and explore the connection between CZ science and society.

The summer program ends with a virtual Student Research Symposium and Final Celebration with all mentors, other CZ Net scientists and educators, friends, and family in attendance. CZNet-REU students will have the opportunity to present their research at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in December of each year, where they will reconnect with their cohort and network with scientists from CZNet and across the discipline.