The faculty of the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences (COAS) realize the possibilities of enlisting talented and motivated undergraduates in COAS research projects. UHC students are already involved in funded research projects leading to Honors theses and graduate school opportunities. The following is a list of COAS faculty who have additional openings in their research ventures.
Projects are available for students with expertise in areas ranging from political science to engineering, including marine biology, biochemistry, zoology, and many more. When you have an idea of what your research interests might be, please contact Professor Bob Duncan for more information.
The College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences (COAS) includes over 50 academic faculty and 90 graduate students who conduct research in earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences, and marine resource policy and management issues. While the College does not offer a major program of undergraduate study, our faculty teach 18 courses that serve over 800 undergraduate students each year at OSU. However, there is currently a great missed opportunity for undergraduates to participate in research at sea or in the world-class analytical laboratories in COAS. On the other hand, there is nationally a shortage of high-quality applicants to graduate programs in oceanography and atmospheric sciences. Some of the talented and highly motivated undergraduates in the Honors College may find a career in this direction following exposure through an REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) program.
The COAS-UHC REU program matches 5-6 UHC students each academic year with faculty mentors in COAS, across the broad research programs conducted with support from federal agencies (e.g., NSF, NASA, NOAA). Supplemental funding requested by faculty to existing research awards will support student participation. Students can then be assured of (1) employment, (2) research experience, presentation and writing skills, and (3) a topic and faculty advising for a thesis. Faculty will get a committed, talented junior member of the research group, who will contribute increasingly with time, and a growing pool of applicants to graduate programs nation-wide. Initial selection of projects, faculty and students should occur between Sophomore and Junior years, so that REU students are engaged in research through the Junior year. This will result in identification of senior thesis topics to be pursued in the second year of participation. Hence, there will be 10-12 REU in the program at steady state.
To broaden the pool of potential Honors College participants, COAS will provide an Honors section of OC331, Introduction to Oceanography, currently taught every term on campus (and as an extended campus course each year), starting Fall 2005. We expect the REU program to start in 2005, following recruitment of potential COAS faculty mentors. The program will be coordinated through the Student Programs office in COAS (Bob Duncan, Director) and the Associate Dean of the Honors College (Bill Bogley). Inquiries by students and faculty are invited.
Mentor |
Project Area |
Project |
| Jack Barth | Coastal oceanography (sea-going) Computer skills; Phys. Ocean | |
| Andrew Bennett | Physical Oceanography |
Adapt a OG model to the IOM |
| Zanna Chase | Chemical Oceanography |
1. High-resolution iron analysis for high-resolution mapping of coastal waters |
| Jim Coakley | Atmospheric Science | Cloud Physics |
| Rick Colwell | Oceanography | Spectrometric detection of microbes in environmental waters |
| Bob Duncan | Geological Oceanography | Sediments and Glacial-Interglacial Climate Change |
| Kelly Falkner | Arctic oceanography; Chemical ocean | |
| Martin Fisk | Mineral-Eating Microbes | |
| Chris Goldfinger | Fish habitat mapping; Coring turbidities | |
| Miguel Goni | Chemical Oceanography | 1. Upwelling and productivity changes in the Cariaco Basin 2. Sediments mobilized following hurricanes 3. NOAA Global Change Program |
| Rob Holman | Geological Oceanography | Coastal Imaging Lab |
| Ricardo Letelier | Biological Oceanography | Effects of light variability on the growth rate of ocean algae |
| Eric Maloney | Hurricanes, Atmosphere-Ocean climate modeling | |
| Olivia Mason | Microbiology Lab Assistant | |
| Jim McManus | Geological Oceanography | Trace metal or carbon cycling in Lake Malawi, Africa |
| Alan Mix | ||
| David Nelson | Biological Oceanography | Ocean Cruise & Data Analyisis |
| Nick Pisias | Geological Oceanography | Gulf of Alaska Fjords |
| Fredrick Prahl | Chemical Oceanography | Winds of Climate Change |
| Clare Reimers | Chemical Oceanography | Electrode materials in a microbia fuel cell |
| Roger Samelson & Eric Maloney | Physical Oceanography & Atmospheric Science | Seasonal forecasting of coastal upwelling |
| Kipp Shearman | Physical Oceanography | Ocean bottom water temperature |
| Eric Skyllingstad | Atmospheric Sciences | Modeling of sea ice melting |
| Joe Stoner | Paleomagnetism of sediment cores | |
| Ted Strub & Ricardo Matano | Physical Oceanography | Satellite analysis of coastal ocean temperatures and phytoplankton |
| Anne Trehu | Gravity and magnetics of Gorda Esc Geophysics | |
| Cindy Twohy | Atmospheric Sciences | Electron microscope |
I have a good project for a good math, physics or mathy CS student, to adapt a QG model to the IOM. 99% of the code is written, the student just has to learn the fluid dynamics, the optimization theory and make some minor code fiddles. He or she could then invert e.g. satellite data etc to his or her heart's content, time permitting
1. Development of a new method for iron analysis in seawater suitable for high-resolution mapping of coastal waters. Iron is an important limiting nutrient in the ocean. This project involves adapting a published colorimetric assay for iron to a bubble-segmented continuous flow mode, so that it can ultimately be coupled to the seawater stream delivered by a ‘pumped profiler’ developed at COAS. The project involves analytical chemistry as well as some programming and instrument development work.
2. Inputs and cycling of trace metals to the Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea. The Gulf of Aqaba is a semi-enclosed basin surrounded by desert. It is an excellent natural laboratory in which to study the chemical and biological impacts of desert dust in the ocean. This project involves analyzing samples collected from the Gulf for a suite of trace metals, using high-resolution inductively coupled mass spectrometry (HR-ICP-MS) in the Keck Lab at COAS.
3. Design of a versatile software package for the operation of flow-injection analysis instrumentation. Flow-injection analysis (FIA) is a widely used analytical technique in chemical oceanography, because it is rapid, accurate, and can easily be brought to sea. Detection can be by colorimetry, chemiluminescence or fluorescence. A single software package capable of interfacing with multiple detectors, and designed to reflect actual use by oceanographers, is needed. This project is suitable for an engineering student, particularly one with strong programming skills. All programming would be done in LabView, a widely used instrumentation programming environment.
4. Ocean trace element chemistry. Measuring trace levels of important micro-nutrients and toxins in interesting parts of the oceans, such as the Red Sea. Instrument development.
Dr. Zanna Chase
zanna@coas.oregonstate.edu
737-5192
Description: The student should have basic microbiology and molecular biology skills from lecture and lab classes. Useful experience includes cultivation of environmental microbes, DNA extraction, purification, and amplification from environmental samples, enumeration of cells in water samples. These lab skills will be used to determine the presence and concentration of microbes in water samples and compare cell numbers to spectrometric determinations of microbial numbers. Visit Rick Colwell's Web site for more information.
The type of work that I forsee undergraduates becoming involved with would be sample preparation and analyses, as well as data interpretation and presentation. The NOAA grant has one more year of field support, so there may be opportunity to go out in the field. I have some funding on each grant already to support undergraduate researchers, but I may ask for REU funds specifically for the 2nd year of the Katrina grant, which does not have undergraduate support. The time frame of all three of the grants is the next couple of years.
The Coastal Imaging Lab (CIL) in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences seeks an undergraduate student to help with a variety of tasks, including the collection, processing, and analysis of digital video images of the near shore. CIL is involved in the application of computer vision/image processing techniques to evaluate near shore fluid dynamics and associated changes in beach morphology. Applicants should be continuing OSU students with a background in physical science, computer science, or engineering. Unix and/or Matlab experience a plus.
Preference will be given to applicants with at least two years remaining at OSU. The position is part-time (10-15 hours per week) through the school year, full- time during the summer, and is available immediately. Applications will be accepted through May 1, 2005
Please send or email your resume to:
Cindy Paden
COAS-OSU
Ocean Admin. Bldg. 104
Corvallis, OR 97331.
paden@coas.oregonstate.edu
This work could easily develop into a senior thesis project for the student, and it would include working in my lab up to full-time this coming summer. Then, if the student is working out well and interested in pursuing it, I'd invite him or her to come on a 30-day cruise of mine (essentially the whole month of September) and continue to work part-time during the school year on post-cruise analyses and perhaps thesis writing. I think a student majoring in biology, chemistry or environmental sciences would be best able to take advantage of the opportunity I have in mind.
If you are interested in this project please email Dr. David Nelson.
Sources of PNW Margin Terrigenous Sediments and Glacial-Interglacial Climate Change. The rivers of the Pacific NW supply sediments to the continental margin of Washington, Oregon and northern California. Long cores from the margin show correlated plankton and pollen records of climate change over the last 100,000 years. This project uses a variety of geochemical techniques to “fingerprint” the sediments from specific major rivers, to track their contributions to the margin sites, and answer fundamental questions about how the land and ocean respond to climate change over this period. The student will learn analytical techniques, sample preparation, and data interpretation.
Today, winds blowing seasonally to the west off North Africa transport large quantities of dust. The dust contains organic carbon and lipid biomarkers (biological source specific molecules). Analysis of biomarkers associated with the organic carbon and the stable isotopic (d13C) composition of both the organic carbon and its biomarker constituents can yield insightful information about vegetation patterns and climatic conditions in the source regions on land.
A novel set of dust samples has been collected from a set of locations off west Africa. This project would teach a student: 1) methods used to obtain this type of chemical data from samples and 2) how to extract meaningful environmental information from the resultant dataset.
Dr. Fred Prahl
fprahl@coas.oregonstate.edu
737-3969
I will have aerosol samples in mid January to run on the electron microscope. Generally I hire an undergrad to do this without much scientific research involvement, but it could certainly be parlayed into a research project for them. It involves a few days of training and then working 10 hours/week for a couple months on the scope.
