Project Summary (2011-2017)

The Training Core of the UC San Diego Superfund Program supports the interdisciplinary education of junior scientists to become the next generation of environmental researchers in the Environmental Health Sciences. It is a multidisciplinary program at the crossroads of biology, chemistry and environmental sciences which converge in our Superfund program. UC-SD faculty members are affiliated with one or more of several graduate training programs: Chemistry & Biochemistry, Biological Sciences, Biomedical Sciences, and Neurosciences at UCSD or The Scripps Research Institute graduate program, each of which is independently organized and most are multidisciplinary and multi-departmental. Thus, while the supported graduate students may be based in dramatically different scientific disciplines, they share focused interest in environmental health sciences and participate in educational opportunities through meetings, seminar programs, the Community Engagement Core, the Research Translation Core, teaching opportunities, and required classes focused in molecular toxicology and toxicogenomics, ethics, statistics, and environmental health. Training students from a variety of graduate programs in interdisciplinary approaches to environmental sciences is novel and unique. The UC-SD program fosters predoctoral training that specifically addresses issues related to environmental health and such programs are critical for the preparation of young investigators to undertake the research so important to improving our environment and providing key information related to toxics in human health. Thus, the interdisciplinary training of Ph.D. graduate students within the extremely rich environment of the UCSD Superfund Program Center, continues to create a cadre of dedicated, cutting-edge Environmental Health research leaders for the future.