RESEARCH EXPERIENCES FOR UNDERGRADUATES

Summer 2025 Program Dates
June 2 – August 8, 2025

Application Deadline: February 14, 2025

ABOUT LUMCON’s REU PROGRAM

LUMCON has run our Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program on Interdisciplinary Research Experiences in Louisiana’s Changing Coastal Environments since 2011. This program has been and/or is supported by a variety of sources including the National Science Foundation’s REU Site Program; federal, state, and other research grants awarded to research mentors; and direct support from LUMCON member institutions. A cohort of REU participants will spend ten weeks between early June and mid-August at LUMCON conducting independent research projects with guidance from scientific mentors/mentor teams (from a mentor pool of LUMCON faculty, post-doctoral associates, and/or visiting scientists) while interacting with peers participating in other aspects of LUMCON’s summer programs. Each student is paired with (a) scientific mentor(s) based on mutual research interests. The REU program is designed to give students a meaningful, hands-on research experience that takes advantage of state-of-the-art methods and technologies available at LUMCON.

Throughout the program, students will identify a research question, develop and orally present a research proposal, conduct their proposed research project, and gain experience in science communication by presenting the results of their project in LUMCON’s annual Summer Student Research Symposium during the final week of the program. In some cases, REUs will have the opportunity to further develop and refine their results into a manuscript that will form the basis for (or contribute to) a subsequent publication in the scientific literature. REU students will also participate in a series of career and skill-building workshops and activities throughout the program. REU students are immersed in the LUMCON community and will have the opportunity to participate in seminars, laboratory outreach programs, social events, and more throughout the summer.

Each summer, the LUMCON Marine Education program offers several undergraduate/graduate level field courses. REU participants will have plenty of opportunities to interact with these other students as well as graduate students, visiting scientists in residence over the summer, K-12 students participating in a variety of camps and programs, and visitors from the general public, providing an even richer REU experience.

REU program research areas vary year to year but include biogeochemistry, habitat forming species, ecosystem ecology, dissolved organic matter cycling, microbial ecology, behavioral ecology, invertebrate diversity and ecology, wetland science, and disturbance ecology.

Interns pay no facility fees or tuition charges and receive:

  • A stipend of $6,000 for the 10-week program (paid every 2 weeks)
  • Free housing and meals at the DeFelice Marine Center
  • Funds to partially or fully cover travel costs to and from LUMCON from their home or university

Students participating in REU internships are often eligible to receive academic credit from their home institutions. Program participants may be interested in exploring this possibility. A number of LUMCON REU alumni have also continued building on their projects after returning to their home institutions with many of these efforts resulting in senior or honors theses.

The ideal candidate should be interested in pursuing a career in coastal and/or marine science. They should also be creative, hard-working, detail-orientated, dedicated, and comfortable working as part of a research team. Experience with field or laboratory research is a plus but not necessary.

**Candidates MUST be available for the entire ten-week period.**

To be eligible, you must be returning to an undergraduate degree program in the fall (e.g., if you will graduate in the May or June before you wish to join the program, you are NOT eligible). Students from groups underrepresented in the sciences and students attending small colleges are encouraged to apply, as are first-generation college students.

More eligibility details are in our REU Program Handbook.

Please feel free to contact Dr. Brian Roberts, our REU Program Director, if you have any questions about the program and/or the application process. Please see our REU Program FAQ document for answers to frequently asked questions.

Mentors and mentor teams will be selected from LUMCON faculty members, their post-docs and graduate students, and visiting scientists who have active research programs addressing basic and applied research questions in and around the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers, their deltas, adjacent wetlands, and nearby shallow coastal or deep ocean waters.

In the summer 2025, REU opportunities are available in several research areas, including:

    • ecosystem ecology
    • biogeochemistry
    • habitat forming species
    • dissolved organic matter cycling
    • microbial ecology and diversity
    • sea level rise
    • phytoplankton ecology
    • marsh and estuarine biodiversity
    • wetland science
    • disturbance ecology
    • bioimaging and fluid mechanics
    • behavioral ecology

The following mentors at LUMCON are accepting students for the 2025 LUMCON REU program (this list will change yearly).

 Dr. Brian Roberts is an ecosystem ecologist and biogeochemist. His research group studies how ecosystems along the freshwater-estuary-ocean continuum process and retain nutrients and energy and how this is altered as a result of human perturbations to the landscape. His research interests also include biogeochemical cycling, microbial ecology, plant ecology, and predator-prey interactions in wetlands and estuarine pelagic and benthic environments and involves field observations and controlled mechanistic experiments conducted both in field and laboratory settings. Dr. Roberts is interested in mentoring REU students with interests in working with a team of researchers to develop independent projects that fit within the context of our group’s diverse, larger efforts.

  • Some potential research projects include: wetland biogeochemistry; marsh plant ecology; controls on N cycling rates; microbial communities and CH4 fluxes / C-cycling rates in marsh and offshore sediments; marsh predator-prey interactions; the role of mussels and/or oysters in living shorelines; disturbance impacts on sand shoal ecosystems; conducting a biodiversity survey of LUMCON’s property to augment our Natural History collection (co-advised with Dr. Archer).

Dr. Stephanie Archer is an ecologist with a research program focused on elucidating the role that habitat forming species (e.g. sponges, oysters) play in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem function in the Anthropocene. Specifically, the Archer lab is interested in determining how human activities impact the habitat-forming organisms in these systems and the consequences for their associated communities. To address these questions, we use a variety of approaches including natural history, food web ecology, passive acoustics, and analytical chemistry. Our work spans from inland waterways to the deep sea and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Northeastern Pacific.

  • Archer is interested in mentoring REU students interested in oyster reef or soundscape ecology. Potential projects include identifying patterns of acoustic behavior in reef-associated taxa, examining the impacts of environmental conditions on oyster feeding behavior, examining the role of soundscapes in juvenile oyster settlement, developing soundscape indicators of biodiversity on Louisiana’s artificial reefs, or conducting a biodiversity survey of LUMCON’s property to augment our Natural History collection (co-advised with Dr. Roberts).

Dr. Marshall Bowles investigates the microbiology and geochemistry of salt marsh, coastal, and deep sea environments. The ocean has a great abundance of microbes (e.g. bacteria), indeed they outnumber humans by much more than a million times! We know microbes, though small, change how chemical elements move on Earth. My goal is to understand how microbes in the coast and the ocean interact with the world around them. This means that I typically try to figure out how microbes actually change the chemistry in their environment or are themselves influenced by the chemical environment around them. REU projects in Dr. Bowles’ lab will be field and lab based and utilize a variety of microbiological analytical tools, as well as analytical chemistry equipment.

  • This summer we are looking for students interested in: exploring microbial diversity in salt marsh sediments; describing nutrient fluxes; describing plant microbe interactions; and understanding methane fluxes from coastal sediments.

 Dr. Kevin Du Clos is a biological oceanographer working at the intersection of biology and physics. Research in the Du Clos lab examines how marine organisms interact with their fluid environments though swimming, feeding, sinking, and other behaviors. We use advanced imaging techniques and mathematical modeling to study individual scale behaviors and interactions in the context of large scale ocean processes, such as carbon cycling. We work with a range of organisms, including phytoplankton, oysters, and jellyfish. Dr. Du Clos is particularly excited to mentor students with interests spanning some combination of marine biology, engineering, imaging, and fluid mechanics. REU projects will likely be based mainly in the lab with field collections.

  • Potential projects include 3D laser scanning of gelatinous organisms, phytoplankton sinking behavior, and effects of oyster reef architecture on feeding on larval recruitment.

 Dr. Guillaume Rieucau is a Marine and Coastal Behavioral Ecologist studying the role of behavior in structuring fish communities and trophic interactions in marine and estuarine ecosystems. He is interested in understanding the fundamental processes that mediate predator-prey interactions, habitat use and aggregative tendencies of marine organisms (from forage fish, elasmobranches and marine mammals) in a fluctuating environment. He explores how group-living organisms collectively react to external factors such as predators, environmental conditions, anthropogenic disturbances, fishery activities and habitat structure. He addresses most of these questions by conducting laboratory, mesocosm and in situ behavioral experimentations using advanced technology (high resolution imaging sonar, unmanned aerial vehicles) and multi-target computer tracking, video analysis to quantify fine-scale dynamic behavioral responses. He is also using his experience in animal behavior to provide information for conservation and management plans.

  • Potential REU research this summer: Exploring social interactions of overwintering Floridian manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris) using drone-based photogrammetry and social network

All application materials must be received by February 14, 2025. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed.
New in 2025, we are using the National Science Foundations online application platform (ETAP) for this student opportunity.

A complete REU application consists of the following items. All these items will be required through ETAP so have them ready.

1. Completed application (click this link to go directly to the application).

2. A one-page statement of interest, describing your interest in and reasons why you should be selected for LUMCON’s REU program. After consulting the REU mentors and project opportunities, you should also indicate your top two research preferences and why you would like to research these topics.

3. A resume or curriculum vitae describing any science-related jobs, internships, volunteer work, scholarships and/or other activities that you have held or participated in and any other relevant skills or accomplishments.

4. Two letters of reference from individuals capable of commenting on your academic qualifications and, if possible, research skills (college or university faculty or research advisors preferred).

5. A copy of your current college transcript.

All items must be received by 11:59 CT on February 14, 2025.
If you have any questions about the application process, please contact reu@lumcon.edu or (985) 851-2860.

Funding for this REU site is provided by the National Science Foundation’s Division of Ocean Sciences located in Arlington, VA (Award number: OCE-2150358).  The NSF contact for this program is Elizabeth Rom. NSF does not handle REU applications; please contact each REU site directly for application information