Source: Ari Jumpponen, 785-532-6751, ari@k-state.edu
and Bruce Snyder, 785-532-2430, basnyder@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, 785-532-6415, ebarcomb@k-state.edu

Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009

FEDERAL STIMULUS FUNDING HELPS K-STATE ECOLOGISTS BRING UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHERS TO KONZA PRAIRIE FOR RESEARCH COMBINING ECOLOGY, MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

MANHATTAN -- Federal stimulus research funding means Kansas State University ecologists will get more help studying the tallgrass prairie. The funding is supporting research opportunities for eight to 10 undergraduate students each summer through 2011.

K-State researchers Brett Sandercock and Ari Jumpponen, associate professors of biology, and Bruce Snyder, instructor of biology, have received more than $210,000 from the National Science Foundation to help K-State continue to be part of the Research Experience for Undergraduates Site program in Biology.

The program at K-State began in 1995 and is one of the longest running Research Experience for Undergraduates programs in the country. It brings outstanding undergraduate students to K-State for a 10-week summer research program. The students are mentored by individual faculty members.

The students undertake independent research projects that tackle questions in ecology and evolution using molecular and genomic techniques. The focus of the K-State site is to study the biota of the tallgrass prairie with implications for predicting and mitigating the consequences of global change.