Biogeochemical Research Initiative for Education
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| Audience/Grade: | College Sophomore-Graduate |
| Discipline(s): |
Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering Chemical, Biochemical, Biomolecular Engineering Chemistry Earth Sciences Environmental Engineering Geological Engineering Life Sciences |
| Special Topic(s): | |
| Learning Resource Type: |
Community - General |
| Media Type: |
Unknown |
| Author(s): |
Organization:lambert@essc.psu.edu |
| Description: | BRIE, a comprehensive and interdisciplinary education initiative in biogeochemistry, is a National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education Research Training IGERT program. "Few scientists are prepared to address biogeochemical questions due to cross-disciplinary differences in vocabulary, technique, and scientific paradigm. Thus biologists, geochemists, and engineers each bring a narrow view to the study of environmental systems even though new techniques create great opportunities for advancement. Although recent literature is effusive with enthusiasm for cross-disciplinary approaches to biogeochemistry, this potential cannot be realized until we address the basic difficulty of cross-training geological and biological scientists. The Biogeochemical Research Initiative for Education (BRIE) program is specifically designed to break down institutional barriers in order to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration and training on campus. The aim is to impact environmental engineering, geochemistry, soil science, and microbiology through the training of a new generation of interdisciplinary scientists prepared and motivated to advance fundamental, applied, and non-traditional research careers. Our program should also create an example on the Penn State campus delineating how interdisciplinary science can best be promoted. Interdisciplinary research and training is necessary because interactions between bacteria and geological materials typically occur at a molecular interface; however, these nanometer-scale interactions profoundly impact the global environment. Unfortunately, microbiologists and geochemists often overlook the inter-dependence between the biosphere and geosphere. This disciplinary myopia ignores the ubiquitous and fundamental nature of interactions between microbes and the environment, which, for example, have led to such globally important events as the rise of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere, and which continue to lead to such environmentally devastating problems as acid mine drainage. Microbiological research communities often consider the matrix of the earth as a backdrop that only indirectly affects bacteria. Similarly, geochemists often neglect the contributions of microorganisms in analyzing fluid-rock interactions within the Earth's crust. This lack of cross-disciplinary effort, both biochemical and geochemical, has generated an acute need for novel and mechanistic approaches to study the means and consequences of bacterial growth in natural and engineered environments." |
| Rating: |
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| Related Resources | |
| Usage Tip | |
| Use of Resource: |
Site has useful teaching modules and associated courses. |
| Difficulty: |
Medium |
| Interactivity Level: |
Low |
| Version Info | |
| Publication Date: | June 2007 |
| Platform/Format: |
WWW |
| Cost: |
Free |
| Download URL: | http://www.ems.psu.edu/BRIE/ |
| Metadata: |
IEEE LOM Record |
| Collection: |
NEEDS
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