The Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, in collaboration with the Georgia Institute of Technology ( ACE at GA Tech ) introduces a new interdisciplinary graduate program in chemical signaling in aquatic environments. A National Science Foundation IGERT grant and Institute funds will provide substantial support for student stipends, travel, and research aimed at blending biology, chemistry, and engineering into a cross-disciplinary program allowing students to perform novel studies on the impact and significance of chemical signals in the marine and freshwater environments. The goal of this program is to produce scientists and engineers that have a breadth of interdisciplinary experience in chemistry, ecology, fluid dynamics, and sensory biology so that they may meld these fields into a comprehensive understanding of these processes and their effects in aquatic communities. Students will receive training by interdisciplinary teams of biologists, chemists and engineers, and will design a dissertation within areas such as: signals affecting the fate of materials and energy; chemical signals regulating biotic interactions; and microbial chemical ecology.
Students may be admitted to the IGERT program through the Schools of Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Civil or Environmental Engineering. Students accepted into the IGERT program receive generous fellowships and tuition waivers for multiple years, and substantial travel and research funds to foster creative, independent projects. IGERT fellows will participate in multidisciplinary course work including substantial hands-on experience with state-of-the-art techniques, as well as receiving training in scientific communication, ethics, and other necessary tools of the trade. This is expected to lead to an interdisciplinary dissertation incorporating a mix of biology, chemistry and engineering. |
