MBARI: Sea Exploration Opportunity

Ever been interesting in working with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute? I know I have!

Well here is our big chance as undergrads.  Every summer MBARI holds a ten week program where students get the opportunity to work with staff on a self-chosen topic. There are a number of equally rad projects from evaluating deep sea critters to reprogramming AUVs.
$500/week!! (June 9 – August 15, 2014) 

Launching ROV Doc Ricketts

For the full list of potential projects:

http://www.mbari.org/education/internship/14interns/2014projects.html

Interns must decide on a general topic but can suggest research ideas within the area.  The project must be able to be completed by the end of the ten weeks and any published work will be co-authored with mentor.

Application information (due Feb 13th) can be found at:

http://www.mbari.org/education/internship/14interns/14announce.htm

I couldn't find the name of this one, so comment if you know!

The only catch, our spring quarter ends a week into the program!  Mega bummer.  My suggestion would be to email the program coordinator George Matsumoto mage@mbari.org expressing interest in the internship, explaining the schedule overlap, and asking if the program would accommodate for this situation. If you do end up receiving a response, please post it as a comment.


This is a wonderful opportunity for research experience and mentorship!

Discover the Natural Reserve System

Here's a great opportunity to find out about some of the research going on at UCSB's many natural reserves.

Discover the Natural Reserve System:
A Conference Celebrating the UCSB NRS
PROGRAM for February 8, 2013
University of California Santa Barbara
Bren School of Environmental Science and Management

Even if you can't make it to the talks you could check out the poster sessions - there are 32 posters in each session and its a very efficient way to find out about a whole bunch of research on campus. Plus you can meet the grad students involved and ask them questions.


8:45 – 9:00 WELCOME TO NRS DAY: Dr. Patricia Holden, Director,
UC Santa Barbara Natural Reserve System

9:00 – 9:30 Dr. Cristina Sandoval, Director, Coal Oil Point Reserve, UC Santa Barbara
The Recovery of the Western Snowy Plover at Coal Oil Point Reserve

9:30 – 10:00 Dr. Carla D’Antonio, Environmental Studies Program, and Department of
Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, UC Santa Barbara
Interpreting Livestock Grazing Effects on Grassland Composition

10:00 – 11:00 POSTER SESSION ONE (Abstracts will be posted by January 14)

11:00 – 11:30 Dr. Kevin D. Lafferty, United States Geological Survey and UC Santa Barbara
This Nature Reserve is Full of Parasites!

11:30 – 12:00 Dr. Tim M. Tinker, United States Geological Survey and UC Santa Cruz
The Sea Otters of Central California: Keystone Predators and Indicators of
Nearshore Ecosystem Influences

12:00 – 1:30 LUNCH BREAK – Lunch is on your own

1:30 – 2:00 Dr. Lynn H. Gamble, Department of Anthropology, UC Santa Barbara
Human Adaptation During the Middle Holocene on Santa Cruz Island

2:00 - 2:30 Hank Pitcher, College of Creative Studies, UC Santa Barbara
Painting on a Reserve

2:30 – 3:30 POSTER SESSION TWO (abstracts will be posted by January 14)

3:30 – 4:00 Dr. John M. Melack, Bren School of Environmental Science and Management,
and Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, UC Santa Barbara
From Snowmelt to Saline Waters: Studies of Lakes in the Eastern Sierra Nevada

4:00 – 4:30 Dr. Peggy L. Fiedler, Director, UC Natural Reserve System
The UC Natural Reserve System at 48 Years (and Counting)

4:30 – 6:00 WINE RECEPTION

Research opportunity in the evolution of genomes

Steve Proulx, a Professor in EEMB, is looking for a couple of undergrads interested in research to join his lab.

Steve's interests are focused on understanding the evolutionary forces that structure genomes. Do genomes evolve to be robust? How do multi-gene families form? How does gene regulation evolve? Should regulation be simple or involve complex feedbacks? What evolutionary forces act to shape the machinery of DNA replication, transcription, and translation?

His lab website is here. You should contact Steve directly (proulx@lifesci.ucsb.edu) if you are interested and you should certainly mention you are a CCS student.

Worster awards

You may be familiar with CCS's SURF awards but another source of funding for summer research is the Worster awards. These only apply to those working with grad students in them labs of EEMB faculty but that includes numerous CCS students and CCS students ARE eligible to apply (and several of them have won this award in the past). Even if it is not suitable this year you may want to bear it in mind for future years.

The text below is copied from an e-mail from Craig Carlson (ie applications go to his mailbox not mine!).

The Worster family has again graciously given EEMB a gift to go towards graduate / undergraduate research pairing fellowships. As in previous years, this award is to support the development of graduate and undergraduate research in ecology, evolution and/or marine biology through a mentoring program that pairs an undergraduate with a graduate student mentor during the summer. All graduate students that have their thesis committee chaired by an EEMB faculty member are eligible to apply for this award. We anticipate that stipends this year will be $6000 for each team ($3000 for the graduate and $3000 for the undergraduate, to be paid during the summer). We anticipate that we will be able to fund 5 teams this coming summer. Applications for this award (electronic, Word or PDF files AND a printed copy delivered to my office or placed in my EEMB mailbox) are due to me by Friday, April 6st, 2012. Please be sure to send and to deliver both electronic and hard copies. Please include:

1. Brief (2 pages, prepared by the graduate student) description of the research project and how the undergraduate student will participate in it.
2. CV of the graduate student, including progress toward his/her degree and any prior mentoring experience. 3. A brief statement from the undergraduate regarding his or her professional goals and how the research experience will prepare him/her to meet them. Undergraduates are expected to complete a senior honors thesis during the 2012-2013 or 2013-2014 academic year and express their intent to do so. In addition, undergraduate promise, experience, and GPA in their major will factor into the decision for funding.
4. Letter of support from the grad student's major professor. Please note that recipients will be obligated to write a summary of their team's progress and accomplishments at the end of the summer. These summaries will be sent to the Worster’s in the fall as part of a package thanking them for this important gift.

Undergraduates who will graduate in June 2011 are NOT eligible for this award. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me. -- Craig A. Carlson Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology University of California Santa Barbara, CA 93106

San Diego Zoo Fellowships

The San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research is pleased to offer Summer College Student Fellowships in various areas of research. Since 1975, the Institute has made opportunities available to interested and qualified students in order to gain research experience in the field of conservation research. It is made up of a diverse and dynamic research team, including the divisions of Applied Plant Ecology, Applied Animal Ecology, Behavioral Biology, Conservation Education, Genetics, Reproductive Physiology, and Wildlife Disease Laboratories.

Fellowships are for 12 weeks, with start dates of 21 May or 18 June to late August/early September. Undergraduate and Masters students interested in pursuing scientific careers relating to the scientific disciplines represented are welcome to apply. This year, fellowships will be available in each of the seven divisions. Applications for fellowships are accepted between January 1 and February 28 of each year for the following summer. All applications must be received no later than February 28. Applications and more information are available online.

Gray Whale Count

2012: coming to the Channel near you ... whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions, and the occasional sea otters. This is your opportunity to be something special ... to Count!

We have scheduled an exceptional presentation on campus: Tuesday evening, January 17, 2012 @ 7 PM Marine Science Institute Auditorium, UCSB Scott Simon, Manager of MSI's Research Experience and Education Facility (REEF) will talk about opportunities for students and the university community in the the new building going up adjacent to MSI, the Outreach Center for Teaching Ocean Sciences (OCTOS). Michael Smith will then detail immediate opportunities for students to participate in Gray Whales Count 2012 as interns — sponsored by the Coastal Fund — training to supervise the survey from Counter Point or as volunteer observers, monitoring whales, dolphins, otters, and pinnipeds just off our shore.

Gray Whales Count conducts an annual survey of the northbound migration of Gray whales through the nearshore of the Santa Barbara Channel. From February through mid-May, the fifteen-week survey is conducted from land at Counter Point (above Devereux and Sands) in the Coal Oil Point Reserve by community volunteers, including students from UCSB. Since 2006, UCSB's Coastal Fund has supported the project with funding for student internships and special equipment needs. There are three choices for UCSB students. Most participate as volunteer observers with a scheduled two-hour shift, ideally each week through the Count. Interns make a much bigger commitment, training to be supervisors or the research and education. Interns will learn to identify and distinguish marine mammals in the Santa Barbara Channel with one of the most abundant and diverse populations of marine mammals in the world. Interns commit to a four-hour shift a week through the Count, fifteen weeks. Most first-year interns are volunteers, but there are a few stipends available for need and exceptional qualifications. Experienced interns returning to the Count are eligible for a stipend. All stipends are funded by the Coastal Fund. We are very grateful for their dedication and support. To learn more about these opportunities please visit our web site: www.GrayWhalesCount.org.

Get to the Point in 2012.

REU

It's not too early to start thinking about next summer. If you are looking for both some travel and an exciting research experience then you should investigate the NSF's REU program - Research Experience for Undergraduates.

NSF funds a large number of research opportunities for undergraduate students through its REU Sites program. An REU Site consists of a group of ten or so undergraduates who work in the research programs of the host institution. Each student is associated with a specific research project, where he/she works closely with the faculty and other researchers. Students are granted stipends and, in many cases, assistance with housing and travel. Undergraduate students supported with NSF funds must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States or its possessions. An REU Site may be at either a US or foreign location.

You apply via the individual institutions but NSF maintains a website where you can search through all the sites by location, discipline or keyword. There are lots of them in the biological sciences and CCS students are successful every year. Now is the time to be making plans. Deadlines vary but are typically in February.

Awesome summer opportunity

Awesome opportunity. Get involved in research, see beautiful places, get fit, and help save a declining amphibian species. What more could you ask?

Andrea needs help with back-country field work studying disease dynamics in mountain yellow legged frogs. The work will involve hiking, backpacking, catching frogs and testing them for chytrid infection, and collecting water samples. Contact Andrea directly if you are interested: andrea.jani@lifesci.ucsb.edu

Great research opportunity

Andrea, a grad student in my wife's lab is looking for good undergrads to help with summer research (and possibly to pair up with to apply for a grant for grad-undergrad research teams). 

This is a fantastic opportunity to get involved in a very exciting research project. The Briggs lab works on a number of research areas but much of the current focus is on the frog-killing Chytrid Fungus in the California Sierra Nevada.

Like most folks in the lab Andrea will be doing some back-country field work, but also does a lot of molecular biology (genotyping chytrid strains and characterizing bacterial communities that are symbiotic on the skin of frogs).  The general idea is to understand how bacterial community composition and chytrid strain contribute to the outcome of infection (persistence or die-off of populations).

Let me know asap if you are interested and I'll put you in touch with Andrea. Cherie has had lots of great CCS students in her lab and I'd like to continue that tradition.

REU

I posted about REU's before. The posting below is from just one of the dozens of opportunities available. If you want a summer research adventure then now is the time to be checking them out and applying.

Texas A&M is offering a summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, which will be held from June 1 to August 5 in College Station.  The theme is Interdisciplinary Research on Imaging and Biomarkers.  The application can be found at:  http://etidweb.tamu.edu/hsieh/REU and the flyer is attached.
 
Activities will include joining a research group led by a faculty mentor, completion of a 10-week research project, and participation in weekly faculty seminars, field trips, and career development workshops.  Students will write a report and present their research to their REU cohort and at an REU poster session on campus. They will also be strongly encouraged to polish their reports after completing the program, with a view toward presenting at a national conference and/or publishing in an academic journal.
 
Each participant will receive a stipend of $450/week for ten weeks. Other benefits include allowances for housing, meals and round trip travel to College Station; 1.0 credit hour of undergraduate course credit; and full access to university recreational facilities.
 
Criteria for selection include: 

• Desire to participate in research as evidenced by application responses and faculty recommendation;
• Completion of at least the sophomore year of the curriculum for an academic major in engineering, computer science, or the life sciences;
• GPA of 3.00 or above (exceptions may be made based on review of an applicant's last 60 hours of coursework);
• Citizen or permanent resident of the U.S. or its possessions;
• Plan to graduate no earlier than December 2011.

Students who have limited opportunities to participate in research on their home campuses or who are from groups traditionally underrepresented in engineering and science are highly encouraged to apply.

Worster Awards

I'm copying below this year's Worster Award announcement. Note that although the graduate student must be in EEMB, the undergraduate does not and a number of CCS students have benefited from this award in the past. This is a great opportunity for Summer funding and if you are interested then you need to talk to a friendly EEMB grad student.
John



The Worster family has again graciously given EEMB a gift of $30,000. As in previous years, this award is to support the development of graduate and undergraduate research in ecology, evolution and/or marine biology through a mentoring program that pairs an undergraduate with a graduate student mentor during the summer. All graduate students that have their thesis committee chaired by an EEMB faculty member are eligible to apply for this award. We anticipate that stipends this year will be $6000 for each team ($3000 for the graduate and $3000 for the undergraduate, to be paid during the summer). We will be able to fund 5 teams this coming summer.

Applications for this award (electronic, Word or PDF files AND a printed copy delivered to my office or placed in my EEMB mailbox) are due to me by Friday, April 1st, 2011. Please be sure to send and to deliver both electronic and hard copies.

Please include:

1. Brief (2 pages, prepared by the graduate student) description of the research project and how the undergraduate student will participate in it.

2. CV of the graduate student, including progress toward his/her degree and any prior mentoring experience.

3. A brief statement from the undergraduate regarding his or her professional goals and how the research experience will prepare him/her to meet them. Undergraduates are expected to complete a senior honors thesis during the 2011-2012 or 2012-2013 academic year and express their intent to do so. In addition, undergraduate promise, experience, and GPA in their major will factor into the decision for funding.

4. Letter of support from the grad student's major professor.

Please note that recipients will be obligated to write a summary of their team's progress and accomplishments at the end of the summer. These summaries will be sent to the Worster’s in the fall as part of a package thanking them for this important gift.

Undergraduates who will graduate in June 2011 are NOT eligible for this award.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Craig Carlson

Summer opportunities

Hopefully you all got the SURF announcement from CCS. SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship) provides a stipend to support CCS students in summer research projects working in a faculty-led research group at UCSB.

If you are a CCS student and did not get this e-maik then CCS does not have your correct e-mail address and you shoudl rectify this since you are missing important e-mails (like the SURF announcement).

On the subject of summer a great source of opportunities is the NSF REU program (National Science Foundation's Research Experience for Undergraduates).

NSF funds a large number of research opportunities for undergraduate students through its REU Sites program. An REU Site consists of a group of ten or so undergraduates who work in the research programs of the host institution. Each student is associated with a specific research project, where he/she works closely with the faculty and other researchers. Students are granted stipends and, in many cases, assistance with housing and travel.

CCS students have been very successful in obtaining these and we hope that some of you continue this tradition. NSF maintains a website that can help you find these opportunities - you can search for REU sites by topic, keyword or geographic location. Applications are all made through the individual sites.

Restoration internship and research opportunities

The Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration (CCBER) has 3 paid restoration intern positions and 2 aquatic biology research positions available this winter.  The first aquatic research position includes regular sampling for aquatic invertebrates in local vernal pools and sample processing and will be best for an independent and detail-oriented student.  The second position is to continue our study of Campus Lagoon sediment quality. We are looking for someone interested in gaining lab and field experience and doing some independent research.  All positions pay $300/quarter.

Interested applicants should send their resume and letter of interest to Lisa Stratton:  stratton@lifesci.ucsb.edu

Undergraduate Research Scholarship

I checked and the following opportunity is NOT restricted to MCDB students and IS open to CCS students. 

The Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology is pleased to announce the Summer 2011 Crowe Family Undergraduate Research Scholar award, given by the Crowe family to support undergraduate summer research in an MCDB lab. The award will provide a stipend to a student in the amount of $2300 for a commitment lasting at minimum 10 weeks in the summer of 2011.

If you have identified a faculty sponsor to work in their lab this summer and are interested in competing for this award, please contact the faculty and ask them to nominate you.

The application for the Crowe Family Undergraduate Research Scholar Award should include three documents:

1. A one page maximum description of the proposed research prepared by the undergraduate applicant.
2. A copy (unofficial) of the most recent undergraduate transcript and a listing of quarter courses in progress.
3. A brief letter from the MCDB Faculty sponsor stating that the proposed summer research will by supported in the faculty member's lab, and a brief description of who will be mentoring the student researcher during the award period.

The application documents should be submitted to Andrew Kroes at the Undergraduate Advising Office in LSB 3316 as soon as possible prior to 4PM on Friday, January 21, 2011. Selection of the award recipient is anticipated to take place shortly thereafter.

Evolutionary Ecology Internship Opportunities in the Mazer Lab

The Mazer lab tests predictions and develops hypotheses concerning the process and outcome of evolution by natural selection in wild plant species. In our current work, we’re examining the causes and consequences of the evolution of plant mating behaviors (yes, plants behave!). The "mating system" of wild plant and animal populations refers to the ways in which sperm and egg unite within and between individuals. In plants, outcrossing occurs when pollen is transferred (often by insects or by wind) from one plant's flowers to another's. In contrast, self-fertilization (selfing) is an extreme form of inbreeding that occurs when a single plant pollinates itself; the united egg and sperm originate from the same individual! Just as in humans and other animals, inbreeding in plants can have harmful effects on their offspring. Nevertheless, the evolution of selfing (from outcrossing ancestors) is quite common in plants. Indeed fully 20-25% of living plant species regularly engage in selfing. Detecting the “costs” and “benefits” of self-fertilization — especially in a stressful and changing climate, where pollinators may become a highly limiting resource — and predict the ecological conditions under which selfing evolves are the central goals of our research.

We would like to recruit undergraduates into the Mazer lab to help with a supervised research project on mating system evolution in several species of the California native wildflower, Clarkia. Undergraduate researchers will work with Professor Mazer, graduate students, postdocs, other undergraduates in the lab to learn a variety of lab, greenhouse, and computing techniques that we’ve developed to study:
1) The physiological performance of selfers vs. outcrossers under stressful conditions
2) Genetically based associations between mating system, physiology, and fitness
3) The ways in which natural selection operates under field conditions

Time Commitment: 8-10 hours per week, including a weekly meeting. Students who work for at least two full quarters will be eligible for paid positions in future quarters (pending available funding).
Current Lab Members:
• Dr. Susan Mazer, Principal Investigator (mazer@lifesci.ucsb.edu)
• Dr. Leah Dudley, Post-doc (dudley@lifesci.ucsb.edu)
• Alisa Hove: PhD Student (hove@lifesci.ucsb.edu)
• Brian Haggerty: PhD Student (haggerty@lifesci.ucsb.edu)
Please contact Leah Dudley (dudley@lifesci.ucsb.edu) if you are interested in joining our research group. Also describe why you are interested in this project and what preparation you’ve had that might help you to be an excellent co-worker (Examples: course work in ecology or evolution, organizational skills, statistical experience, data entry, lab work, chemistry, camping, wilderness experience, or field work). We will meet
Tuesday, January 4, 2010, the first week of the new quarter in LSB 4301 2-3pm to introduce ourselves and chat about schedules and possible projects. However, please contact me beforehand if you are interested in the lab and especially if you cannot make it to this meeting time.

Summer research opportunities

Caltech is excited to announce two summer research opportunities available to continuing undergraduate students. Questions about these programs can be directed to Carol Casey at casey@caltech.edu or (626) 395-2887.

MURF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS

The MURF program aims to increase the participation of underrepresented students (such as African American, Hispanic, and Native American, females who are underrepresented in their discipline, and first-generation college students) in science and engineering Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. programs and to make
Caltech's programs more visible to students not traditionally exposed to Caltech.

Eligibility: Students must be current sophomores through non-graduating seniors and must be U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents. A minimum GPA of 3.0 is required.

Support: MURF students will receive a $6000 award for the ten-week program.
Additional housing and travel support may be provided.

Application: Online applications are due January 12, 2011.

For more information, please visit www.murf.caltech.edu

AMGEN SCHOLARS PROGRAM

Caltech's Amgen Scholars Program is geared towards students in biology, chemistry, and biotechnology fields. Some of these fields include biology, biochemistry, bioengineering, chemical and biomolecular engineering, and chemistry.

Eligibility: Students must be current sophomores through non-graduating seniors, must be attending a four-year university, and must be U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents. A minimum GPA of 3.2 is required.

Support: Amgen Scholars will receive a $5500 award, round-trip air transportation, a generous housing allowance, and a food allowance.

Application: Online applications are due February 15, 2011.

For more information, please visit www.amgenscholars.caltech.edu

Carol Casey
Associate Director
Student-Faculty Programs
California Institute of Technology
Mail Code 330-87
Pasadena, CA 91125
(626) 395-2887
casey@caltech.edu

Geeky science students wanted

As CCS students you should not restrict yourself to those labs that actively advertise for undergraduates. But if research on the molecular mechanisms underlying polycystic kidney disease and mechanisms of epithelial cell function and kidney physiology sound like your thing then this is a great opportunity.

Geeky science students invited to apply for undergraduate research internships in the Weimbs lab in MCDB

Do you have a passion for research? Did you spend your childhood looking at dirt samples under a microscope or mixing concoctions with a beefed-up chemistry set? Are you serious about a career in research and attending a PhD program in a top graduate school? Do you want to make a real contribution to research on a human disease that affects millions? Do you want to be intellectually involved, read research papers, come up with new ideas and test them yourself? Are you unafraid of learning new scientific techniques, tinkering with experiments over and over until you get them to work, spending long hours in the lab, reading papers all night long, presenting your findings in front of the research team?

If this sounds like you, we want you in the lab!

You would be teamed up with and trained by an experienced scientist in the lab. You would be expected to work more and more independently over time, manage your own experiments and schedule, plan and interpret experiments, understand what you are doing, be productive, move your research project forward.

Look up our research on the web to see if this excites you. If it does, send your resume and list of grades to:

Thomas Weimbs, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology
weimbs@lifesci.ucsb.edu

Lab opportunity

Subject: Freshman/Sophomore Lab Position Available in Collin's Lab

Research Project:
The overall research is to determine the influence of environmental and hormonal factors on the constituent phase of embryo and larval development as they occur within the ovaries of viviparous nearshore rockfish(Sebastes spp)

Undergraduate Contribution:
The undergraduate will be responsible for validating protocols for incubating embryos and larvae aspirated from the ovaries of rockfish at various stages of development. The student will carry out incubations at different osmolalities and in the presence of various potential growth promoting factors. The student will assess development by morphometric analysis of fresh specimens and histological sections.

If you are interested, please contact Adam Karevoll at
akarevoll at umail.ucsb.edu

Labwork opportunity

Tom Smith, a grad student in  in Cherie Brigg's lab is looking for a couple students to help him sort and ID insects and algae, etc. His project involves describing Sierra Nevada alpine lake communities and their response to extinction of endemic frogs.
Contact Tom directly if you are interested.

Midterm answer and job opportunity

Ecology 'midterm' answers, plus a few comments, are here. (If you need the midterm itself it is here).

Here's one more job opportunity for the summer if any of you are looking for gainful employment.

The Valentine Lab of the Earth Science Dept. and Marine Science Institutute at UCSB is seeking an undergraduate assistant for summer 2010. This student will aid in field collection and organization of marine water samples and related equipment as part of our seeps-related research into the methane budget for the waters of the Santa Barbara Basin. Additional laboratory experience will be gained as well. Experience with working aboard UCSB's small watercraft is a plus (but not required). The stipend for this position will be approx $12.50/hr at 20-40 hrs a week - taking summer school is ok but ability to work all day on Tuesdays is important. Those interested please contact Frank Kinnaman at kinnaman@geol.ucsb.edu for more information.