Superfund Research Program
Training Core (ARRA Funded)
Project Leader: Robin McCarley
Grant Number: P42ES013648
Funding Period: 2009-2011
Project-Specific Links
- Project Summary
Final Progress Reports
Year: 2010
The role of the Training Core is to provide an infrastructure and environment that promotes the development of post-doctoral and graduate students in the highly interdisciplinary field of health effects engineering science. It focuses on recruiting and multidisciplinary education of graduate and postdoctoral students. Biomedically-oriented, environmental interdisciplinary research is the theme of this Center, and as such, requires a cross-cutting training program in support of the Superfund Center’s educational activities. The Training Core is establishing an aggressive recruiting program for prospective post-doctoral fellows and graduate students. Students from diverse ethnic, gender, and scientific backgrounds are being prepared through a set of core graduate courses and a research rotation program to make valuable contributors to the environmental workforce.
The Training Core built a website that describes the particulars of being involved in the program, from undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral fellow points of view In addition, they have begun their recruiting program for graduate students at targeted schools in Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama; these visits have entailed an LSU Superfund Research Program (SRP) faculty meeting with undergraduate organizations. They have recruited 9 PhD and MS students into the LSU SRP, yielding a highly diverse group. It is noteworthy that these students committed to the programs because of the SRP, and thus their being recruited did not compete with efforts of existing PhD/MS programs. With the Administrative Core the Training Core has established and successfully operated the student seminar program from the fall of 2009 to present.
The proposed Training Core builds upon the research activities of LSU and the LSU Health Sciences Centers in New Orleans and Shreveport (LSU-HSC-NO and LSU-HSC-S) and creates new educational opportunities for graduate and postdoctoral students and researchers. Through participation in core courses and a rotation program among the labs, students will gain a holistic, interdisciplinary perspective from which to analyze Superfund-related environmental issues.