Interested In Working With NARA?
Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE)
Summer 2014 Registration will open in the fall
SURE participants participate in full time research for a summer (9.5 weeks) program, starting May 30 ending August 2, that provides laboratory, fieldwork and research skills in the broad area of biofuels research.
Students are paid a stipend of $5000 for the full summer and expected to work full time. Housing and tuition (if necessary, depending on location) are covered. All students will be participating in the poster session on August 2 in Pullman.
NARA 2012 SURE participants
Articles about the SURE program:
Project area descriptions:
- Feedstock development: To identify and select improved phenotypes of regionally important Douglas-fir/poplar feedstock for energy crops via advanced genomic sequencing, comprehensive phenomics characterization, and pretreatment.
- Sustainable feedstock production: To assess availability and cost of forest/energy crop biomass to support a sustainable regional biofuel industry with minimal environmental impact.
- Feedstock logistics: To assess the harvesting and transportation methods needed to support a woody biomass supply chain, in part, dedicated to fuels and chemical production.
- Biomass conversion/refining: To provide facile, economic and technological means for biomass-derived replacement of aviation fuel and various petrochemicals.
- System Metrics: To provide state of the art factors needed to assess the economic viability, social perceptions, and environmental burdens for a fuels and chemical industry based on woody biomass.
Interdisciplinary Graduate Training
- Create graduate students with the integration, teamwork and communication skills needed to be leaders in the bioenergy and bioproducts economy.
- Build multicultural perspectives into the graduate study
- Improve the diversity of STEM graduate programs.
- Disseminate research, technology, and economic development opportunities to diverse stakeholders
NARA Affiliated Universities and Colleges
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NARA's Five Teams
To meet its mission's goals, the Alliance is broken down into specific areas of focus:
- Education: Engage citizens, meet future workforce needs, enhance science literacy in biofuels, and help people understand how they're going to fit into the new energy economy.
- Sustainability Measurement: Evaluate and assess environmental, social, and economic viability of the overall wood to biofuels supply chain, guiding the project as it goes forward.
- Feedstocks: Take a multi-pronged approach for the development and sustainable production of feedstocks made from wood materials, including forest and mill residues, municipal solid waste, and specialty energy crops.
- Conversion: Provide a biomass-derived replacement for aviation fuel and other petroleum-derived chemicals in a way that is economically and technologically feasible.
- Outreach: Serve as a conduit between researchers and community stakeholders, helping to transfer the science and technology of biofuels and important co-products to communities in the Northwest.
