• Water Quality Parameters
• pH
• Dissolved Oxygen
• Conductivity
• Salinity
• Total Suspended Solids
• Nitrogen
• Phosphorus
• Pathogens (drinking and surface waters)
• Total Coliform
• Escherichia coli (E.coli)
• Enterococcus faecalis
• Microbial Source Tracking (MST)
• Phytoplankton
• Cyanotoxins
• Benthic Macroinvertebrates
• GIS Mapping
• Sediment Chemistry

Eligibility

Any full-time CSAM faculty with a research interest in water science, sustainability and environmental management is eligible to apply. The fellow will be required to attend research meetings to exchange research ideas during the academic year. Additionally, the fellow is expected to present a seminar and submit at least one grant proposal for external funding to a major, competitive agency (e.g. NSF, EPA, NOAA, etc.). All applications must include the following items:

1. Curriculum vitae.
2. Statement of the applicant’s research interests with emphasis on what the applicant expects from and can contribute to the Institute’s mission on promoting environmental research. Specifically, the statement must include research plans relevant to the PRI mission. This Fellowship is not designed to offer release-time to faculty who have a specific research program already underway on the topic of the proposal or who are currently funded by external grants or contracts for the proposed work. In your c.v., you must have a clearly defined list of current and pending funding, noting distinct dates of start and finish.
3. Applicants are responsible to ensure that Departmental Chairs are aware of the submission of the Fellowship proposal so that the Chair can plan, as needed, potential replacement for course impacted by the release time.

Requirements of PRI Fellows

All PRI Fellows are required, in the year of their release-time, to:

• Attend research discussions on relevant issues of research and opportunities to promote the missions of the PRI.
• Submit, before June of the Fellowship year, at least one new, major proposal to an appropriate funding agency and on an issue relevant to the research topic reflected in the Fellowship. This proposal must be submitted through the Passaic River Institute.
• Each Fellow, in their initial year, must present a research seminar, open to the University, on the topic of the fellowship year.
• Any publications that result from the Fellowship must acknowledge the Fellowship and the Passaic River Institute.
• Any external presentations must similarly acknowledge the Fellowship and the PRI.

How to Apply

Please submit your application to pri@montclair.edu by February 27, 2015. All applications should be in 12pt. Roman font, single-spaced and be no more than four pages in total length. All CVs must be current.

Proposals will be evaluated by the PRI Steering Committee, which will also have the opportunity to seek external reviews based on specifics of the proposal. Fellows will be selected by the PRI Steering Committee with final decisions made by March 20, 2015.

Students in grades 5 and 6 in Costa Rica, Panama, Canada, and the USA had a 45-minute long interactive discussion with CSAM’s Dr. Jackie Willis in Panama and botanist Linda Moskalyk and her colleagues in Costa Rica.  The students and researchers shared information on their local forest conservation projects, reviewed the science that underlies forest preservation, and discussed how to make their local conservation efforts more effective.

“It was a fabulous experience for my students and me.  It really made the learning come alive and become purposeful.  My students are eager to do it again.” said Katrina Macht, the teacher of a Bridgewater-Raritan class that participated in the four-country broadcast.

The Rainforest Connection makes it possible for student groups to converse via videoconference with researchers in a rainforest in Panama. Dr. Jackie Willis, who conducts research projects on Barro-Colorado Island (BCI), a Smithsonian field station, directs the project.

“Students in Saskatoon (Canada) and New Jersey rarely meet scientists and don’t usually understand what they do as professionals.  In fact, these two groups of students knew little about each other’s homelands and had lots of questions,” said Dr. Willis.  “It was great fun to bring together people with a common purpose but disparate backgrounds to share ideas,” Dr. Willis added.

Launched in 2003, The Rainforest Connection Live is sponsored by PRISM, The Bristol-Myers Squibb Center for Science Teaching & Learning and the College of Science and Mathematics at Â鶹´«Ã½ÔÚÏß, Verizon Access New Jersey, and The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama.

The award-winning interactive science education program reaches over 100 classrooms each year in 9 states, and has originated from rainforests in Panama, Belize, Thailand, and Australia.

The fully collaborative video connection technology that enables the broadcasts is provided by the Verizon Access New Jersey Video Portal.  In addition to the live classroom broadcasts, Verizon also provides web-access to the Rainforest Connection programs:

For additional information on the Rainforest Connection Live, please contact PRISM at prism@montclair.edu or 973-655-7753.