Opportunities

Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) and Summer Internships at the University of Minnesota

Summer 2020

Lakes and Greenhouse Gases

Two REUs are available this summer (28 May- 8 Aug 2020) to examine methane and carbon dioxide production and release from three iconic lakes in Minnesota. Students will work with scientists at both Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve (CCESR) and Itasca Biological Station and Laboratories (IBSL) and will examine these processes Cedar Bog Lake, which Raymond Lindeman studied in early research leading to the development of the field of ecosystem science. At IBSL, students will work on Lake Itasca at the headwaters of the Mississippi River, and Elk Lake, world renown for research on paleo-climate and paleo-ecology. Each of these lakes are being outfitted with state-of-the-art instrumentation that will enable real-time measurements of these greenhouse gases and their fluxes into and out of these lakes. Students will work with scientists in the Cotner, Knoll, Griffis and Isbell labs at the University of Minnesota. During this 10-week program students will receive a $5,000 stipend plus funding for housing, food and travel.

Contact: Jim Cotner (cotne002@umn.edu) for more information.

Access the application and procedures here: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1zERkb8vaElem2CuaocjI6q3yXzaiSaVX


Potential Graduate Students

Be sure to check out my website to see if the things we are doing in our group seem interesting enough that you would consider investing a large amount of your time/life into them. I love my job and I love working with students. And I like to have fun while I'm working but that is much easier if you love your work. Graduate school is a big commitment so give it a lot of thought before you decide that you are ready for it.

I have a fairly relaxed perspective on mentoring students. I do not see my job one of motivating students--I assume that you will bring that to the table on your own. Ideally, my students will work on something loosely (or closely) related to things I have worked on in the past or I am presently working on. I expect students to carve out their own projects that are independent of my own work, but it often works best if students can incorporate some of my funded work into their projects.

Potential Undergraduate Students (Directed Studies/UROP/Volunteers)

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