Students wrap up summer at USF conducting ocean and weather research

By Sarah Sell, University Communications and Marketing

Undergraduate students from across the country spent their summer on USF's St. Petersburg and Tampa campuses, immersing themselves in research focused on oceanography, weather, climate change and science communication.

The Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program gives students the interdisciplinary research skills needed for graduate school and future careers.

Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), students were paid to work alongside faculty and other researchers who are conducting NSF-funded research. The students received a stipend for travel, food and accommodations on campus.

USF hosted several REUs during Summer 2024, including two that focused on weather and ocean research on the St. Petersburg campus.

• Making Waves: Science Communication and Interdisciplinary Ocean Research Experiences hosted by USF's College of Marine Science (CMS).
• Interdisciplinary Approaches to Climate Change Adaptation Research and Training (PIACCART) hosted by USF's College of Arts and Sciences (CAS).

"These programs are crucial for undergraduates who may be coming from community colleges or universities where they don't have exposure to mentored research," said Jennifer Collins, a professor in the CAS School of Geosciences whose research focuses on weather and climate. "When they leave here, these students will be trained and can then be ready to conduct graduate-level research."

The Making Waves cohort spent ten weeks developing their research skills in oceanography and gaining a better understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of oceanographic research and the relevant field of science communication.

Activities were divided into two focus areas, with most dedicated to hands-on research projects and the rest toward enhanced experiential activities such as professional development, science communication workshops and field trips around the Tampa Bay area. Students visited multiple government agencies such as the National Weather Service (NWS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Coast Guard and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI).

"We have a lot of valuable assets around our campus," said Ana Arellano, assistant professor of instruction in CMS whose research focuses on chemical oceanography. "We have several experiential field trips so the students can start looking at career options and graduate schools for the future."

Participants also got to conduct research inside the labs at CMS and in the Gulf of Mexico aboard the research vessel F.G. Walton Smith.

"Students collected their own samples and worked with their data," Arellano said. "So, instead of coming in and using the samples we have in our lab, the students became familiar with the process of collecting them and presented their data at the end of the summer."

The cohort for the PIACCART REU spent nine weeks on campus focusing on climate adaptation and resiliency research.

The students, who came from diverse and underserved backgrounds, had the opportunity to gain interdisciplinary research experience related to the effects of climate change on human health and vulnerable communities that are more at risk. Students measured concentrations of organic pollutants in three neighborhoods with different socioeconomic profiles in the Tampa Bay area.

"We bring in students from different backgrounds like engineering, environmental science, music and even literature where the subject of adaptation and resiliency can be applied to their academic area of study," said Richard Mbatu, an associate professor in environmental policy.

Students from the REUs concluded their experience by presenting research projects at Summer Research Symposiums held on July 24 and 25 at the St. Petersburg and Tampa campuses.

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