Please distribute to any undergraduates who might be interested: Unique (and Low-Cost) Opportunity for Ten Undergraduates 2012 Ecological Genetics Field Study Abroad in China
*Learn Chinese and Ecological Genetics at the University of Georgia* With funding from NSF's Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) program, we are offering 10 undergraduates (U.S. citizens or permanent residents only) the opportunity to participate in a unique research abroad opportunity in China during the spring and summer of 2012. This is the 4th year of the program and students have found it to be enormously rewarding. This is likely to be the penultimate offering of this course. The research focus of our PIRE grant is a forensic biogeographic study of species that are native to China and invasive in the southeastern U.S. as well as a growing number of species native to the southeastern U.S. and invasive in China. Each summer, we run a 6 week field course where we visit biological communities throughout China. After the field course, students continue in short-term (3-4-week) research internships in our partner labs in China. Students will need to be prepared to take full advantage of this experience. Therefore, during the spring semester, students must enroll at the University of Georgia (UGA) and take 3 courses; two in intensive elementary Mandarin Chinese and a laboratory course in genetics. No prior experience with Chinese language is required, although students should have had at least a course in introductory biology and preferably courses in ecology and evolutionary biology. After 1 semester of Chinese, most of our students can operate quite well in China. The cost to the student of the summer program is minimal: the grant covers travel to and within China, lodging and most meals. The student is responsible for health insurance, visa costs and personal expenses. Students are also responsible for the costs of enrolling at the University of Georgia for all required courses (12 credit hours) (all students are charged at the in-state tuition rate of ~$300 per credit hour plus fees). The deadline for applications is April 29, 2011. Applications for the 2012 program are available on our website: http://www.genetics.uga.edu/pire/undergrad.html. We encourage any interested students to contact Dr. Mauricio for more information (mauri...@uga.edu). Rodney Mauricio Program Director, UGA-China PIRE
