Thirty four students from across Rhode Island spent their summer on focused research projects that studied marine climate variability, microbial ecology of contaminated coastal sites, ocean acidification, parasitism in red algae, shoulder girdle movement during alligator strides, the zooplankton of Narragansett Bay, and many more intriguing issues of the Ocean State.

As Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows, funded by Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR, students gain the opportunity to pursue independent research in a more intensive and complete way than possible during the academic year. Dedicating the summer to their research projects gives undergraduates a ‘real world’ activity that goes far beyond the classroom. The SURF program exposes students to the varied complexities and unknowns intrinsic to the research process, helps develop valuable skill sets and trains them in handling complications that may arise.