NSF Reu Site: Atmospheric Sciences In the Gulf Coast Region At Texas A&M Univeristy
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abstract
This award funds a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M University. The program allows undergraduate students to conduct research projects in atmospheric science over an 8-week period during the summer, with an expected enrollment of 10 students each summer. REU student research involves linkages between physical meteorology, atmospheric chemistry, and weather and climate, as well as making and analyzing observations and designing, conducting, and interpreting modeling studies. Research topics are largely driven by air quality, climate change, and precipitation processes in the Gulf Coastal region. Students spend the majority of their time conducting focused research under the direction of mentors from the Atmospheric Sciences Department. Sudents also gain exposure to a variety of research settings and multiple sub-disciplines within atmospheric sciences, giving them a clear understanding of the wide variety of atmospheric science research and study opportunities available to them. The REU program has broader impacts through its educational focus, as it exposes students to atmospheric science research and helps to develop the future workforce in atmospheric science disciplines. This REU program is particularly advantageous due to its location in and focus on the Gulf Coast Region, in which there are few atmospheric science departments and, when this award was made, no other REU programs in atmospheric sciences. With its regional focus, this REU site involves students in research problems that are directly relevant to their own and neighboring communities, leading to immediate and long-term benefits to those communities. In addition, the REU program strives to recruit students from underrepresented groups, both through existing partnerships between Texas A&M faculty and minority-serving institutions in the region, and through recruiting visits to minority-serving institutions.
