The Departments of Meteorology and Geology, and the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) propose to expand their recruitment efforts by starting a joint Earth Science summer research school for undergraduate interns. The school will serve as a means of identifying the nation’s best undergraduates during their second or third (preferable) summers of undergraduate education and potentially recruiting many of these to our programs at Maryland. The school will be advertised widely (using newsletters such as EOS, and via a web site), and interns will be recruited from throughout the nation. The selection process will be competitive. This program will run concurrently with a similar program at NASA-Goddard. Together with the NASA program, the combined effort will give us contact with 20-25 outstanding undergraduates interested in research in Earth Science each summer. Our ultimate goal from this and related efforts is to attract an additional 8-10 top quality graduate students to the graduate programs in the units and to ensure that they progress rapidly toward a degree.

This plan summarizes ongoing and proposed efforts by the units to improve the quality of our graduate programs, and in particular to enhance recruitment of top quality students for the programs. The Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) does not currently have its own graduate program, although members of ESSIC (research scientists) fund graduate students to undertake thesis/dissertation research. These students come from the Departments of Geography, Geology, and particularly Meteorology, although we expect that ESSIC will recruit graduate students directly in future. Although we plan to develop a graduate program in Earth System Science, exactly how this will be done remains to be decided. Thus, in the first instance, these ESSIC-funded students will commence graduate studies in one of the existing graduate programs. For this reason, this enhancement plan covers all three units in CMPS, and we briefly review germane aspects of each unit.

The Department of Meteorology conducts research and academic training across a broad range of the atmospheric and oceanic sciences, including the dynamics, chemistry, and physics of the atmosphere, and the dynamics of the ocean. These interests span areas of research with massive consequences for human health and society. The Department academic staff consists of 10 professors, and we are conducting a search for two more faculty in Meteorology and a joint position with ESSIC. The Department has a first class research faculty as well who are available to graduate students as dissertation advisors. In summary, the attractiveness of the Department to students lies in the strong research programs maintained by the academic and research faculty, and the nearly infinite resources provided by surrounding government laboratories such as NASA-Goddard and NOAA-National Center for Environmental Prediction.

Current graduate enrollment within Meteorology hovers around 50. We have experienced a drop in enrollment in the past few years in concert with our peer departments. Approximately half of the enrollment is foreign. We also participate in the Applied Mathematics Program and the graduate program in the Chemistry Department. Typically we graduate 4-6 PhDs per year. GRE scores on the analytical and quantitative subtests and grade point averages for incoming students are high. Most of our students are supported on Graduate Research Assistantships or Fellowships. The Department has no regular Teaching Assistantships, although one student is supported for one semester through the World Studies Course in "Global Change". Many of our students, and most of the American students, come to us with first degrees in fields other than meteorology or oceanography. Typical undergraduate majors include math, chemistry, physics and engineering. The diverse background of our students means that there are few 'natural recruiting departments'. Indeed, one of the most serious problems in attracting students into our field is simply making them aware of opportunities in Earth Science, particularly in the atmospheric and oceanic sciences.

The Department of Geology conducts research and academic training in a variety of specialties, including earth surface processes and solid earth geology. Our research strength, at present, is focused largely upon the broad subject area termed geochemistry. Research in this arena encompasses projects spanning both low temperature (groundwater hydrogeology) and high temperature (magmatic ore forming processes, planetary accretion and differentiation) geochemistry. The Department academic staff consists of 10 tenured or tenure track professors, and we are conducting a search for two additional hires (one jointly with ESSIC). The Department also benefits from the close proximity of governmental facilities, such as the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Carnegie Institution of Washington and the Smithsonian Institution. We have traditionally utilized both equipment and personnel at these locations to enhance the graduate experience for some students.

The Department has a graduate student populace of approximately 25. It is expected that the number of graduate students will grow as the number of faculty with research funding expands. Incoming GPA and GRE scores have gradually increased over the past 10 years as standards were raised. At present they are good, but with room for improvement. The number of high quality applicants for the Geology program has remained stable over the past several years. This is in contrast to a decline in the number of quality applications nationally. Nonetheless, in order to increase the size of our graduate program we will have to increase the number of well-qualified applicants, and also improve upon the percentage of these that actually enroll. Approximately one third of our students are supported on Graduate Teaching Assistantships. The remaining two thirds are supported via Graduate Research Assistantships, Fellowships, or via assistance from outside agencies such as NSF and EPA.

ESSIC will comprise a Director and three tenure-track faculty from August 17, 2000. Currently there are approximately ten research faculty. All faculty have funding to support graduate students in thesis/dissertation research. It is a requirement of ESSIC membership that research faculty be involved in education. The College expects ESSIC to develop a graduate program during the next 18 months. To this end a two-semester, 6 credit hour pair of seminars in earth system science has been proposed for the 2000-2001 academic year. We have also requested funding for 6 "Earth System Science Graduate Fellows"; these students will begin graduate studies through one of the programs in the supporting departments.

The Department of Meteorology has recently formed a recruitment committee to focus attention on recruitment issues. The recruitment committee has been active in addressing a variety of immediate issues, such as creating a new advertising poster (joint with ESSIC), manning recruitment booths at the Fall AGU and AMS meetings, and improving the Department web site. Each spring we participate in the campus open house and we anticipate an increased effort this year. We anticipate these activities being expanded to include all three units next year, with obvious benefit in terms of shared costs and shared faculty time manning promotional booths at an increased number of scientific meetings throughout the year.

The Department of Geology maintains a full set of recruitment materials including brochures and web sites. We have also begun to aggressively recruit top candidates by offsetting visitation costs and eliminating application fees for domestic students with >3.0 undergraduate GPA. Because of our small size relative to all "top 25" departments (according to NRC or USN&W Reports ratings) we are often not a first consideration for graduate school by students geographically far removed from Maryland. We successfully recruit high quality students from many regional undergraduate institutions (such as Franklin & Marshall College), but we do poorly in recruiting students from west of the Mississippi. We need to access the very best students from throughout North America.

The units recognize that we must find ways to directly attract undergraduates into earth science subjects, and that this process goes all the way back to the middle and high school level. Because of our need to advertise each discipline as well as promote our interdisciplinary activities, the units will work together to produce a range of attractive and effective promotional materials in Earth Science, with particular reference to atmospheric sciences, earth system science, geology and oceanic sciences.

The Departments of Meteorology and Geology, together with ESSIC, propose to create a summer research school for undergraduate interns. Our target audience will be sophomores and juniors majoring in geology, chemistry, engineering, physics and related sciences. The three units will run the school as a single, unified program. This larger "umbrella program" will be designed to enhance the building of camaraderie, to allow group lectures over the broad base of Earth Science, and to permit a unified set of effective social events (picnics, volleyball, etc.) to be run. Because of the necessary differences between the scientific goals, techniques and approaches in Meteorology and Geology, and Earth System Science, the school will be divided into two sub-programs, with both groups of interns being introduced to earth system science as part of each program.

The Meteorology/ESSIC program will pair a limited number of students (~7) with academic advisors in appropriate research areas for a ten-week summer research experience. In this way Meteorology can leverage its large and active research staff to provide a unique educational opportunity.

The Geology program will instead run a ten-week "short course" type of program for ~5 students. The topic of the short course will change on a yearly basis (and can be tailored to the needs of the graduate program). It will take some aspect of geology, for example geochemistry, and allow the group of students to work collaboratively on a scientific project, optimistically from beginning stage (planning) to end (publication?). Many students enter geology programs because geology can combine outdoor work with science. Consequently, our projects would likely be based on the sampling and analysis of regional materials (for example waters from the Chesapeake Bay).

The motivation for creating this program is two-fold. First, we will provide an opportunity that is not currently available to the nation’s undergraduate student population. This school will benefit talented undergraduates by introducing them to research experience, something which is all too lacking in many undergraduate programs. We are expressly targeting students in the middle college years in order to give them the opportunity to consider a career in research. The second motivation is based on the needs of our programs. With the possible exception of geology, most graduate students in the earth sciences are not undergraduate majors in this area. In order to attract the most talented students from an appropriate range of science disciplines from across the nation, we need the opportunity to introduce them to our fields of research in our house, hands on. The program we are proposing is such an opportunity. In the case of the Geology Graduate Program, the school will give us the chance to show off our (now) impressive analytical facilities, which will enable us to attract top quality students who may not otherwise consider Maryland.

There are other programs in the Washington area, such as the USRA/GSFC Graduate Student Summer Program in Earth System Science, the GSFC Achieving Competency in Careers in Engineering and Space Sciences (ACCESS), and the Carnegie Institution of Washington internship program. These programs are often aimed at an older audience of graduate students and the most advanced undergraduate students. The programs are small and demand far outstrips supply. In addition, these are not degree granting programs, so the internships are not used as a recruitment mechanism.

Our opinion, based on participation in NASA and Carnegie programs, is that the pool of talented undergraduates who are interested in an intense research experience and a summer in the Washington, DC area far exceeds the available opportunities. We believe that demand will be high. As the program becomes established and receives word of mouth advertising, the demand will only increase.

A committed summer school director and a research coordinator for the geology sub-program are critical for the success of the summer school. The director will handle the applications and the review process, will deal with visa problems for foreign students, will arrange housing and transportation, and will co-ordinate the matching of students with advisors. The director will arrange the social activities, host a dinner, and ensure that the research tasks are completed and written up. This person needs to be identified as soon as possible. The coordinator will be in charge of developing and running the scientific program within Geology. It is expected that additional help will be provided via summer funding of a graduate student assistant.

• Our measure of success from these efforts: attract an additional 8-10 top quality graduate students to the graduate programs in the units and ensure that they progress rapidly toward a degree.

The Departments of Meteorology and Geology, and the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, are offering a limited number of undergraduate student research opportunities for the summer of 2001. This program is designed to stimulate interest in interdisciplinary earth science studies by enabling selected undergraduate students to pursue specially tailored research projects in conjunction with University of Maryland scientific mentors.

The associated departments conduct a broad range of research in the areas of atmospheric physics, dynamics, remote sensing, climate and chemistry, glaciology, physical oceanography, geochemistry, and surface and solid earth geology. The Washington area is a focal point for earth system science research, and active collaborations, including the opportunity to attend seminars, etc., is strongly encouraged.

The aim of this program is to introduce promising students to earth system science career options through hands-on educational research experiences in the earth sciences at the University of Maryland. Each student will be teamed with a University of Maryland faculty member with parallel scientific interests to jointly develop and carry out an intensive research project over the ten-week period.

The program is scheduled for ten weeks from June 4 through August 10, 2001.

Number of participants:

12 undergraduates (sophomore/junior) selected competitively.

Restrictions:

The program is open to sophomores and juniors enrolled in undergraduate programs in the environmental or physical sciences, mathematics, or the engineering disciplines. Students will be selected on the basis of academic record, demonstrated motivation and qualification to purse multidisciplinary research in the earth sciences, clarity and relevance of stated research interests, and letters of recommendation. Minorities and women are encouraged to apply.

Students must commit for the full ten-week period (June 4-August 10, 2001).

Credit Available:

none

Financial support:

Students will be paid $3600 over the 10-week period. In addition, University of Maryland will reimburse reasonable domestic travel expenses for participants needing to relocate to the College Park, MD area. Housing will be provided at program expense in on campus dormitories.

Application Deadline:

2 Mar 2001. Decisions made by 2 April 2001.

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