Progress 04/15/21 to 04/14/22
Outputs
(N/A)
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. Identify and recruit students from groups that are underrepresented in science Nine students from throughout the United States were chosen from a group of more than 400 applications. About 20 percent of the applicants were underrepresented minority students. 2. Implement a summer internship program focused on crop plant biotic interactions The nine student participants worked summer research projects in labs at the Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University, and the USDA-ARS. Orientation: Undergraduate participants in the 2021 REU program arrived on June 1. At a welcoming reception, students met their laboratory mentors and faculty members with whom they would be working for the summer. Students received laboratory safety training from Cornell's Environmental Health and Safety group and chemical spill training with Gary Horvath. Jay Miller provided greenhouse safety training. Georg Jander talked with students about maintaining proper laboratory notebooks. Student research: At the beginning of the 2021 summer program, each student worked together with his or her mentor to write a short proposal about the planned research. Each student also critiqued the proposal of at least one fellow student. Individual student research projects varied according to the lab in which the students were working. However, the emphasis was always hands-on laboratory research, learning new techniques, and conducting research on a project that could come to a meaningful conclusion in ten weeks. Summaries of each student's research project can be viewed on the BTI education and outreach website, https://btiscience.org/education-outreach/internships/. Faculty research presentations: In a weekly seminar series in the 2021 summer program, faculty members presented talks about their research. After the talks, students had lunch with the faculty members to ask questions in a less formal setting. Faculty who presented research talks are: June 2, Georg Jander, Boyce Thompson Institute, Cardiac glycoside production in wallflowers June 9, Anurag Agrawal, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Of monarchs and milkweeds June 16, Maria Harrison, Boyce Thompson Institute, Arbuscular Mycorrhiza: living together for 400 million years), June 23, Jim Giovannoni, The road to fruit ripening is paved with good (and bad!) tomatoes), June 30, Clare Casteel, Department of Plant Biology, Microbial Mediation of Plant-Herbivore Interactions July 14, Andrew Nelson, Boyce Thompson Institute, Sounding the hidden depths of the plant transcriptome: determining how long non-coding RNAs help mediate plant stress response July 21, Aleksandra Skirycz, Boyce Thompson Institute, From interaction to function. How to assign functions to metabolites. July 28, Scott McArt, Department of Entomology, Pesticides, pathogens, and pollinator declines: What we know and what YOU can do Bioinformatics workshop: A series of five two-hour bioinformatics workshops, organized by Suzy Strickler, Adrian Powell and Jing Zhang, provided students an introduction to handling large data sets, primarily those from DNA sequencing and gene expression profiling projects. Ethics training: Georg Jander provided a presentation about ethical issues that arise from lab notebooks and other record keeping. Students also completed a Responsible Conduct of Research training course through the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative. Graduate school information session: On July 7th we organized a graduate school information session during which faculty representatives of nine Cornell University PhD programs: Microbiology - Joe Peters Plant Biology - Mike Scanlon Plant Pathology - Adam Bogdanove Plant Breeding - Jean-Luc Jannink Crop and Soil Science - Olena Vatamaniuk Horticulture - Thomas Björkman Entomology - Jennifer Thaler Ecology - Alex Flecker Computational Biology - Phillip Messer Each faculty member gave a five-minute introduction about his or her PhD program. After this introduction, students had the opportunity to meet as groups for half an hour each with three of the faculty members to get more detailed information about the admission requirements and activities of the respective programs. Additionally, students participated in an NSF-sponsored Graduate Research Fellowship webinar and a related panel discussion. Student Wikipedia entries. In an effort at broadening science communication among the interns, we encouraged each student to write or update a Wikipedia entry related to their research. Paul Thomas, a senior Wikipedia editor at the University of Kansas library, gave a one-hour introduction to preparing and editing Wikipedia entries. Summer student symposium: On August 5, 2021, all students presented their results in an annual summer student symposium at the Boyce Thompson Institute. The 9 USDA-funded students presented talks or posters in this symposium. Social mentor program: While each undergraduate student has a research lab mentor, our program encourages participants to begin to think about building their mentoring network even before graduate school. Studies suggest students from under-represented backgrounds in STEM benefit from mentors with shared experiences around identity, race, gender and ethnicity who are outside their lab. They also benefit from building a network of support early on in their career pathway. This summer we piloted an optional program to match undergraduates with "social mentors" on campus with Adriana Hernandez (NSF Graduate Research Fellow) in Chelsea Specht's lab. We carefully match students with volunteer mentors from across Cornell's Graduate Schools who also identify as under-represented in their STEM field. They were also given a $30 College Town Bagel Gift Card and Free Ice Cream cards to facilitate their meetings. Overall, the program had 23 summer intern mentees and 19 social mentors. The results of our survey at the end of the overall summer program, in combination with anecdotal feedback, has allowed us to infer that the social mentor component exceeded our expectations. All (100%) undergrad students surveyed appreciated the opportunity to be paired with a graduate student outside their lab and found the program beneficial. Many students felt that the casual, unstructured nature of the program made them feel comfortable asking questions they don't typically ask research mentors. Since the focus of the program provided time for career discussions and understanding barriers in graduate school, many mentees commented on their appreciation for getting an opportunity to hear more about their social mentor's story and pathway. We will continue the program next year based on the overwhelmingly positive feedback shared by both mentees and mentors. 3. Provide necessary training for students applying to scientific graduate programs Students participated in two graduate school information sessions. One provided general information about graduate school. The other was a meeting with the directors of nine Cornell University graduate fields that are relevant to our summer program: 4. Promote scientific interactions among researchers studying plant biotic interactions Scientific interactions were promoted by housing students together, having them read and critique their research proposals, attendance at weekly lunches, presentations of research talks, and attendance at a symposium at the end of the summer.
Publications
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Progress 04/15/18 to 01/17/22
Outputs
(N/A)
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. Identify and recruit students from groups that are underrepresented in science Nine students from throughout the United States were chosen from a group of more than 400 applications. About 20 percent of the applicants were underrepresented minority students. 2. Implement a summer internship program focused on crop plant biotic interactions The nine student participants worked summer research projects in labs at the Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University, and the USDA-ARS. Orientation: Undergraduate participants in the 2021 REU program arrived on June 1. At a welcoming reception, students met their laboratory mentors and faculty members with whom they would be working for the summer. Students received laboratory safety training from Cornell's Environmental Health and Safety group and chemical spill training with Gary Horvath. Jay Miller provided greenhouse safety training. Georg Jander talked with students about maintaining proper laboratory notebooks. Student research: At the beginning of the 2021 summer program, each student worked together with his or her mentor to write a short proposal about the planned research. Each student also critiqued the proposal of at least one fellow student. Individual student research projects varied according to the lab in which the students were working. However, the emphasis was always hands-on laboratory research, learning new techniques, and conducting research on a project that could come to a meaningful conclusion in ten weeks. Summaries of each student's research project can be viewed on the BTI education and outreach website, https://btiscience.org/education-outreach/internships/. Faculty research presentations: In a weekly seminar series in the 2021 summer program, faculty members presented talks about their research. After the talks, students had lunch with the faculty members to ask questions in a less formal setting. Faculty who presented research talks are: June 2, Georg Jander, Boyce Thompson Institute, Cardiac glycoside production in wallflowers June 9, Anurag Agrawal, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Of monarchs and milkweeds June 16, Maria Harrison, Boyce Thompson Institute, Arbuscular Mycorrhiza: living together for 400 million years), June 23, Jim Giovannoni, The road to fruit ripening is paved with good (and bad!) tomatoes), June 30, Clare Casteel, Department of Plant Biology, Microbial Mediation of Plant-Herbivore Interactions July 14, Andrew Nelson, Boyce Thompson Institute, Sounding the hidden depths of the plant transcriptome: determining how long non-coding RNAs help mediate plant stress response July 21, Aleksandra Skirycz, Boyce Thompson Institute, From interaction to function. How to assign functions to metabolites. July 28, Scott McArt, Department of Entomology, Pesticides, pathogens, and pollinator declines: What we know and what YOU can do Bioinformatics workshop: A series of five two-hour bioinformatics workshops, organized by Suzy Strickler, Adrian Powell and Jing Zhang, provided students an introduction to handling large data sets, primarily those from DNA sequencing and gene expression profiling projects. Ethics training: Georg Jander provided a presentation about ethical issues that arise from lab notebooks and other record keeping. Students also completed a Responsible Conduct of Research training course through the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative. Graduate school information session: On July 7th we organized a graduate school information session during which faculty representatives of nine Cornell University PhD programs: Microbiology - Joe Peters Plant Biology - Mike Scanlon Plant Pathology - Adam Bogdanove Plant Breeding - Jean-Luc Jannink Crop and Soil Science - Olena Vatamaniuk Horticulture - Thomas Björkman Entomology - Jennifer Thaler Ecology - Alex Flecker Computational Biology - Phillip Messer Each faculty member gave a five-minute introduction about his or her PhD program. After this introduction, students had the opportunity to meet as groups for half an hour each with three of the faculty members to get more detailed information about the admission requirements and activities of the respective programs. Additionally, students participated in an NSF-sponsored Graduate Research Fellowship webinar and a related panel discussion. Student Wikipedia entries. In an effort at broadening science communication among the interns, we encouraged each student to write or update a Wikipedia entry related to their research. Paul Thomas, a senior Wikipedia editor at the University of Kansas library, gave a one-hour introduction to preparing and editing Wikipedia entries. Summer student symposium: On August 5, 2021, all students presented their results in an annual summer student symposium at the Boyce Thompson Institute. The 9 USDA-funded students presented talks or posters in this symposium. Social mentor program: While each undergraduate student has a research lab mentor, our program encourages participants to begin to think about building their mentoring network even before graduate school. Studies suggest students from under-represented backgrounds in STEM benefit from mentors with shared experiences around identity, race, gender and ethnicity who are outside their lab. They also benefit from building a network of support early on in their career pathway. This summer we piloted an optional program to match undergraduates with "social mentors" on campus with Adriana Hernandez (NSF Graduate Research Fellow) in Chelsea Specht's lab. We carefully match students with volunteer mentors from across Cornell's Graduate Schools who also identify as under-represented in their STEM field. They were also given a $30 College Town Bagel Gift Card and Free Ice Cream cards to facilitate their meetings. Overall, the program had 23 summer intern mentees and 19 social mentors. The results of our survey at the end of the overall summer program, in combination with anecdotal feedback, has allowed us to infer that the social mentor component exceeded our expectations. All (100%) undergrad students surveyed appreciated the opportunity to be paired with a graduate student outside their lab and found the program beneficial. Many students felt that the casual, unstructured nature of the program made them feel comfortable asking questions they don't typically ask research mentors. Since the focus of the program provided time for career discussions and understanding barriers in graduate school, many mentees commented on their appreciation for getting an opportunity to hear more about their social mentor's story and pathway. We will continue the program next year based on the overwhelmingly positive feedback shared by both mentees and mentors. 3. Provide necessary training for students applying to scientific graduate programs Students participated in two graduate school information sessions. One provided general information about graduate school. The other was a meeting with the directors of nine Cornell University graduate fields that are relevant to our summer program: 4. Promote scientific interactions among researchers studying plant biotic interactions Scientific interactions were promoted by housing students together, having them read and critique their research proposals, attendance at weekly lunches, presentations of research talks, and attendance at a symposium at the end of the summer.
Publications
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Progress 04/15/20 to 04/14/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project are undergraduates with an interest in plant science who intend to pursue graduate degrees. In addition, the project is of interest to universities with graduate degree programs in the plant sciences. Changes/Problems:We were not able to hold an in-person summer internship program in 2020 due to Covid-related restrictions. Instead we organized a virtual program. Although it is still uncertain, we hope to have an in-person, plant-focused summer internship program at the Boyce Thompson Institute and Cornell University in 2021. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A total of 115 undergraduate students from throughout the United States participated in a virtual program in which they heard faculty lectures, learned how to edit scientific Wikipedia entries, met with current graduate students, participated in a career panel, and learned about graduate school opportunities in the plant sciences and related fields at Cornell University. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The student participants in our summer program constitute the main community of interest. In 2020 they received information through Zoom meetings. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We have received more than 300 applications for the 2021 summer program. However, at this point (March 15, 2021) we do not know yet whether Cornell University will allow us to have an in-person internship program. If not, we will organize another virtual summer program.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We received and evaluated more than 300 applications for our REEU program. Acceptance emails were sent to 9 students in February 2020. However, Cornell University cancelled all resident summer programs in the summer of 2020 due to the risk of Covid, so we were not able to run our REEU summer internship program. Instead of a hands-on research experience, we organized a virtual summer program that involved faculty research lectures, meetings with current graduate students, and career information sessions. Participation was open to all students who had applied to our REEU program. A total of 115 students signed up for the virtual summer program. An average of 70 students participated in each of the Google classroom and Zoom events that we organized. Academic activities during our virtual summer program included: Cornell faculty research lectures: Cornell faculty members who would have hosted student research projects talked about their research. June 17, Georg Jander - cardiac glycoside biosynthesis June 24, Margaret Frank - graft compatibility, incompatibility, and ultra compatibility July 1, Adrienne Roeder - flower size and shape July 15, Fay Way Li - moss and fern genomics and evolution July 22, Magda Julkowska - root drought stress resistance July 29, Scott McArt - improving pollinator health June 18, How to edit a scientific Wikipedia entry: Paul Thomas from the University of Kansas library presented a one-hour Wikipedia course. June 19, Juneteenth, organizers shared resources regarding anti-racism with student participants June 23, virtual meeting and networking session for student participants, in small groups June 25, Networking session with current Cornell graduate students Students met in small groups by Zoom with current graduate students. A total of 14 current Cornell graduate students participated. July 8, Graduate school information panel: Directors of graduate studies from nine Cornell departments presented their programs. This was followed by sequential small-group meeting where students met sequentially with up to three graduate program directors. Cornell faculty and departments that participated in the graduate school information session are: Michael R Mazourek, Plant Breeding Thomas Bjorkman, Horticulture Adam Bogdanove, Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Olena Vatamaniuk, Soil and Crop Sciences Mike Scanlon, Plant Biology Monica Geber, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Joe Peters, Microbiology Jennifer Thaler, Entomology Amy Williams, Computational Biology July 14, Plant Science Careers Beyond Academia Panel: Presentations were made by plant science PhD recipients who followed non-academic career tracks. This was followed by small-group discussions with individual presenters for interested students. The presenters were: Charley Romano, Senior Patent Agent, Thompson Coburn LLP Madeline Grant-Hoffman, Ecologist and Science Coordinator, Bureau of Land Management Laura Wayne, Oils Discovery Leader, Corteva Agriscience Rishi Masalia, Leafworks Inc. July 21, networking roundtable, students met in small groups with current graduate students, postdocs, and faculty members
Publications
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Progress 04/15/19 to 04/14/20
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project are undergraduates with an interest in plant science who intend to pursue graduate degrees. In addition, the project is of interest to universities with graduate degree programs in the plant sciences. Changes/Problems:Due to Covid-19 and the closure of the Cornell University campus for the summer of 2020, we have had to cancel our 2020 REEU program. Funding that was scheduled to be used for students in 2020 will instead be used in 2021. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?As described in more detail in the "What was accomplished under these goals?" section, nine undergraduate students from other colleges and universities came to the Cornell University campus to receive hands-on training in plant research. They learned about research methods, scientific writing, and presentation of their results in the form of a talk or poster Additionally, the students received guidance in how to apply for graduate school in the plant sciences. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?All nine students presented their results in a symposium that was open to the public. Summaries of the student research projects are presented on the Boyce Thompson Institute website: https://btiscience.org/education-outreach/internships/interndirectory/ Some students have also presented their results at their own colleges or universities upon returning for the fall semester. The principal investigator, Georg Jander, and the program coordinator, Delanie Sickler, presented the REEU program in a booth at the October 22-24, 2019 SACNAS (Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science) meeting in Honolulu. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Due to Covid-19 and the closure of the Cornell University campus for the summer, we have had to cancel our 2020 REEU program. Funding that was scheduled to be used for students in 2020 will instead be used in 2021. In the fall of 2020 we will begin recruiting students for the 2021 summer program. In February 2021 we will select nine finalists from an expected 300 applications for this REEU project.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
An undergraduate summer internship program, titled "Plant Biotic Interactions in Agricultural Systems" was organized on the Cornell University campus. Nine undergraduate students were recruited from a total of more than 300 applicants. The participating students came from nine different colleges and universities: The College of New Jersey, Humboldt University, University of Texas San Antonio, University of Maryland, St. Lawrence University, University of Central Florida, University of Puerto Rico, Emory University, and Davidson College. There was an emphasis on providing plant research opportunities to students who would not otherwise have them. In some cases, this was because the home college or university does not provide plant research opportunities, and in other cases, it was because the students were from groups that are typically underrepresented in science. Of the nine participating students, six were underrepresented minorities (black, Hispanic, or Native American) and three were first-generation college students. The nine students participated in an undergraduate summer internship program, with a focus on doing hands-on molecular biology research involving plant interactions with pests and pathogens. In addition, the attended weekly faculty lectures, wrote a project proposal, presented their results in a symposium at the end of the summer, attended graduate school information sessions, and wrote or updated a Wikipedia entry related to their research. Students conducted their research in labs at the Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University, and the USDA's Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture & Health. Host labs and titles of the student projects in the 2019 REEU program were: Georg Jander lab, "Exploring Novel Strategies for Aphid Pest Control" Anurag Agrawal lab, "Plastic Responses to Shade: The Milkweed Story" Jocelyn Rose lab, "Characterizing the Mechanism of Cutin Biosynthesis in Tomato Fruit" Rebecca Nelson lab, "Screening Zea mays (maize) Lines for DNA Sequence Variations of Interest to Further Understand Multiple Disease Resistance (MDR) Miguel Pineros lab, "Development of a Fluorescence-Based Approach to Visualize Subunit Stoichiometry and Protein-Protein Interactions at the Single-Molecule Level" Maria Harrison lab, "Discovery of Novel Gene Regulating Arbuscular Mycorrhizal symbiosis" Scott McArt lab, "Plant-Pollinator Networks: How Plant Traits Affect Disease Transmission in Osmia lignaria" Genomic Open-source Breeding Informatics Initiative, "Expanding Genomic Data Management to Transform Breeding Across Crops and Institutes" Mike Gore lab, "Identifying Genes that Regulate Natural Variation for Maize Leaf Cuticular Wax Abundance and Cuticular Evaporation Rate"
Publications
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Progress 04/15/18 to 04/14/19
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience consists of undergraduate students who want to receive training in plant sciences and research on plant interactions with other organisms, specifically pests and pathogens. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?As described in the previous section, the project provided research training to nine undergraduate students. Former student participants will be tracked to determine whether they continue in plant research, go to graduate school, and pursue plant-related careers. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Student research activities are presented on our project website, https://btiscience.org/education-outreach/internships/ , under the tab "Intern Alumni" All student participants presented their results in the form of talks in a public research symposium in August, 2018. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Nine summer interns for 2019 have been recruited and assigned to research labs at the Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University, and the USDA Holley Center. Students will arrive on June 3, 2019. The actual student research projects have not yet been determined, but the overall 2019 summer program will be organized in a manner very similar to that which is described above for 2018.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. Identify and recruit students from groups that are underrepresented in science Nine students from throughout the United States were chosen from a group of more than 300 applications. About 20 percent of the applicants were underrepresented minority students. The nine program participants included three Hispanic and one African American student. Most of the students were from smaller colleges or universities without extensive plant research opportunities. 2. Implement a summer internship program focused on crop plant biotic interactions The nine student participants worked summer research projects in labs at the Boyce Thompson Institute and Cornell University. All of the students wrote proposals at the beginning of the summer and presented their research in the form of a talk in a symposium at the end of the summer. Other activities organized for the summer interns included weekly faculty lectures, a bioinformatics course, graduate school information sessions, and tours for Cornell facilities. Elena Lazarus from the University of Portland worked in Gaurav Moghe's lab to study the biosynthesis of insect-defensive resin glycosides. Marazzano Colon from Duke University worked in Fay-Wei Li's lab to study nitrogen fixation. Allyson Weir from California State University Fullerton worked in Carmen Catala's lab to study sugar transport in tomatoes. Alexander Kehl from San Joaquin Delta College worked in Stephane Bentolila's lab to study RNA editing in plants. Samantha Clark from Lock Haven University worked in Maria Harrison's lab to study mycorrhizal interacts in plant roots. Blyssalyn Bieber from Misericordia University worked in Scott McArt's lab to study florally transmitted parasites in honeybees. Zorimar Vilella Pacheco from the University of Puerto Rico worked in Robert Raguso's lab to study how flower shape influences pollinator preferences. Evelyn Abraham from Winthrop University worked with Minguel Pineros to conduct structural analyses of plant membrane proteins. Joshua Derrick from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology worked in Wojtek Pawlowski's lab to study meiotic recombination in maize. 3. Provide necessary training for students applying to scientific graduate programs Students participated in two graduate school information sessions. One provided general information about graduate school. The other was a meeting with the directors of six Cornell University graduate fields that are relevant to our summer program: Plant Breeding, Plant Biology, Plant Pathology, Horticulture, Crop and Soil Sciences, and Entomology. 4. Promote scientific interactions among researchers studying plant biotic interactions Scientific interactions were promoted by housing students together, having them read and critique their research proposals, attendance at weekly lunches, presentations of research talks, and attendance at a poster session at the end of the summer.
Publications
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