About IRES

International Research Experience for Students in Coastal Zone Research

International Research Experience for Students in Coastal Zone Research (IRES) is a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded program, with the goal to develop globally-engaged U.S. science and engineering students capable of performing in an international research environment at the forefront of science and engineering.  (click here for more info on NSF’s website). 

Dr. Adina Paytan, Director of IRES in Coastal Zone Research.

This specific IRES program (International Research Experience for Students in Coastal Zone Research) program fosters first hand, bottom-up, student driven experience as a way to expose and encourage students at the University of Santa Cruz under the direction of Dr. AdinaPaytan as a way to expose and encourage students to incorporate international, collaborative, and problem based research in their future careers.  While the general research theme (coastal zone sustainability) has been selected, the specific research projects each participant will carryout will be motivated by their own interests and skills (related to their thesis work).  The experience gained will more accurately reflect the whole process of conducting international research, preparing the students for future international collaborations, and providing relevant professional development.

Each student selected for this program, came up with a research project idea based in the Gulf of Eilat and related to coastal zone research, reached out to a found Israel-based collaborators to assist with their research project, and wrote a project proposal with their collaborators which was approved.  Students will spend two months in the summer conducting their proposed research project at the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Science in Eilat, or IUI for short (http://www.iui-eilat.ac.il).  Read about each of the students participating (and their research projects and collaborators) on the Participating Students page, and look for their posts on the home page of this blog as they prepare for their trip to Israel, conduct their research and acclimate to life in Israel, and finish their research projects after their return to the US.