jueves, 27 de enero de 2011

Field Museum summer 2011 undergraduate research internship opportunities

The Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois is please to announce its 2011 summer
REU internship program. Please visit the web site:
http://www.fieldmuseum.org/research_collections/scholarships/reu.html for
program details and REU project descriptions.

Applications must be made electronically via the Field Museum's web site on
or after February 1st. The REU application deadline is March 1st, 2011.
All letters of reference must be received by March 1st.

The Field Museum houses one of the world's foremost scientific collections
of biological diversity (>25 million specimens), and supports active
biodiversity research around the globe. Despite the urgency of the current
biodiversity crisis, few educational opportunities exist for students in the
biological sciences to interact with scientists and institutions dedicated
to the study of organic diversity. The Field Museum REU program will train
a cohort of at least eight students in biodiversity-related research in a
10-week summer program. Each participant will undertake an independent
research project supervised by a museum scientist in a discipline such as
taxonomy and systematics, phylo/ biogeography, paleontology, molecular
phylogenetics, or conservation. Students will experience biological
diversity through the use of the museum's collections in their research, and
will be trained in project-relevant techniques and equipment such as the
scanning electron microscope, various light microscopy set-ups, and
equipment in the Pritzker DNA lab. A six-week course in phylogenetic
systematics run concurrently with intern projects will provide a common
theoretical framework for their research. REU students will receive an
introduction to the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) in Field Museum's
Biodiversity Synthesis Center. At the conclusion of the summer students
will present their research results to their peers and museum scientists at
the Undergraduate Research Symposium. Providing equal opportunity in
biodiversity-related research is an important goal of the program.

Potential 2011 REU Projects include:
* Resolving species limitations in lichens
* Strategies of acacia-ants: to grow or to reproduce?
* Calibrating phylogenies: are we using the right fossils?
* The Bivalve Tree of Life - understanding the evolution of clams,
mussels, oysters and their relatives
* Bivalves in Time and Space (BiTS) - Clams as tools to understand
macroevolution
* Tracing the Evolution of Venom in Scorpionfishes and Waspfishes
* Do skeletal dimensions predict daily activity patterns in rodents?
* Do some nocturnal Malaysian mammals see in color?

2011 Program Dates Start of 2011 REU Program: Monday, June 6, 2011
* Phylogenetic workshop series (weekly), and introductory lectures: June
8- July 27, 2010 (evening class, participation mandatory)
* End of 2011 REU Program: Friday, August 12, 2010
* 2011 REU research symposium: Saturday, August 13 (participation
mandatory)

REU student participants receive a salary of $4,500 for the 10-week program,
and additionally $2,500 subsistence and $500 travel allowance.

This REU program is funded through an REU-Site grant of the National Science
Foundation to Drs. Petra Sierwald and Peter Makovicky (Field Museum of
Natural History).

Corrie Saux Moreau, Ph.D.
Assistant Curator, Division of Insects
Department of Zoology
Field Museum of Natural History
1400 South Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, IL 60605
USA
Office: (312) 665-7743
Fax: (312) 665-7754
cmoreau@fieldmuseum.org

*** WEBSITE: www.moreaulab.org ***

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