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[accordion title=”Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainability” load=”hide”]The UPRRP Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainability is dedicated to education and research in the development of algae-based biofuels produced using thermochemical and anaerobic digestion processes, bringing together faculty from environmental science, chemistry, biology, and engineering. For more information, visit our website at http://renewable.uprrp.edu/[/accordion]
[accordion title=”The Puerto Rico Natural Resource Career Tracks” load=”hide”]Future scientists and managers will require a robust and comprehensive understanding of a wide variety of disciplines in order to devise ways to manage resources while mitigating or adapting to future climate scenarios. This Collaborative Project will enhance recruitment of underrepresented Hispanic students from Puerto Rico HSIs to advanced education and employment opportunities in USDA agencies and related entities. Via experiential learning in the workplace and laboratory, we will prepare our students with tools, knowledge of basic concepts, and critical thinking necessary to address climate change impacts to agricultural and natural systems.Audience: In this Collaborative Project we will individually guide students to employment opportunities via career guidance, student exchanges, and summer internships and other resume-building experiences. We will focus on making sure students have the requisite courses for their chosen USDA career by using the National Student Exchange or other means to tailor student’s coursework to potential employment opportunities. The collaborating campuses in this proposal do not necessarily have all the necessary courses required for USDA employment, so a student exchange program will by a key component of the project. We will use semester and summer research internships to bolster students’ specialized experiences. The collaborating institutions will increase the breadth of student training to include insect and microbial ecology, DNA sequencing, and phytopathology, techniques that will become increasingly important in workplace applications. A new outreach program will target K-12 students in low-income communities, exposing them to climate change effects on this culturally significant El Yunque Rainforest.Number of students: 13 per year; 25 overallProducts: Workshops, field trips, semester research, summer career internshipsOutcomes/Impact: Increased student retention and employment placement For more information click here.https://www.facebook.com/USDANRCTPR/ [/accordion]
[accordion title=”Puerto Rico Center for Environmental Neuroscience (PRCEN)” load=”hide”]The impacts of environmental degradation and climatic variation on the biosphere and its inhabitants remain poorly understood. As a major interface between organisms and their surroundings, the nervous system can provide sensitive and reliable measures of biological responses to environmental perturbations. The CREST Puerto Rico Center for Environmental Neuroscience (PRCEN) was originally established to promote dialog and collaboration between the neuroscience and environmental science communities across campuses of the University of Puerto Rico The PRCEN Phase I initiated a discourse that did not previously exist among researchers and students from these two disciplines. The PRCEN Phase II will benefit from lessons learned and will reinforce the communication across fields and campuses to broaden and amplify its impact on the emergent field of environmental neuroscience and prepare the next generation of scientists who will sustain it. For more information click here. [/accordion]
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