LU wins $800,000 grant to train diverse STEM workforce
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
Lincoln University in Jefferson City was awarded an $800,000 grant by the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a more diverse STEM workforce over the next four years, according to a Tuesday press release.
Sean Zeiger -- an assistant professor of forest hydrology and watershed management at Lincoln -- leads the project. He will train a diverse workforce to measure and model energy, water and carbon budgets. There is also a partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and collaboration with the University of Missouri, the release stated.
“The need to recruit and retain underrepresented minorities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is a national security issue impacting U.S. governmental agencies of the 21st century,” Zeiger said in a press release. “The Department of Energy and other federal agencies are making historic investments in diversity and inclusion with Lincoln University and other historically Black colleges and universities.”
The grant is part of an initiative called Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce. The program seeks to build a foundation for research with training opportunities for students, researchers and faculty at academic institutions not currently well represented, according to the release.
Zeiger and his team will mentor students in research studies at MOFLUX, the University of Missouri’s AmeriFlux Missouri Ozark site near Ashland that examines the impacts of extreme weather and climate on forest-level carbon dioxide uptake and release.
The team will also develop learning materials and training modules for research activities at MOFLUX and create a case-study curriculum for physical hydrology and geographic information systems courses at Lincoln.
Students will spend time at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in an immersive short course on measuring and modeling ecosystem processes, the release stated.
