Davida Smyth
Texas A&M University-San Antonio, TX·Education Research
Human development changes local water, wildlife and soil chemistry, and tracking those changes over time requires steady field data. This grant funds a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site called INSPIRE.
- Fields
Education Research
Earth & Environmental Science
Ecology & Evolution
- Topics
undergraduate research
summer research program
environmental monitoring
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2028
What they work on
- Test whether community-based environmental research helps recruit and retain undergraduate STEM students, using participant surveys and online assessment tools during 10-week summer projects.
- Monitor emerging microbes in water and stormwater quality at the Espada property, a site co-managed with the San Antonio River Authority, to track how development affects local water.
- Assess how temperature fluctuations change the diets of local lizards, as part of long-term monitoring of ecosystem health and biodiversity.
More about the research
It does not fund one specific research project. The program tests whether community-based research on local and regional environmental problems helps recruit and keep students in STEM.
Why it matters
Monitoring water microbes, stormwater quality and wildlife at a river-authority site gives the San Antonio community long-term data on how development affects local ecosystems. The program also offers hands-on research training to students, including community college students, who may otherwise lack research opportunities.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Kathleen Purvis-Roberts
Scripps College, CA·Earth & Environmental Science
Track how water chemistry and microbiology change over time in Bangkok's Bang Mod area canals, using student-built low-cost continuous samplers, to judge if the water is fit for farming and household use.
Kristen Rhinehardt
North Carolina A & T State University, NC·Biology
Train 12 undergraduates each summer (2027–2029) across North Carolina A&T and Simmons University in hands-on synthetic biology projects that design, construct and analyze biological systems.
Melissa Peacock
Northwest Indian College, WA·Earth & Environmental Science
Run academic-year environmental science internships in which NWIC undergraduates do lab, field and data analysis research on Salish Sea water quality, seafood safety and ecosystem monitoring.
The school
Texas A&M University-San Antonio: 2 labs on PI Pages.
Reach out
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