Many undergraduate students are not aware of soil science coursework or how it relates to majors like chemistry, engineering, or biology. Dr. Joshua Heitman and Dr. Owen Duckworth decided to change this by providing these students an opportunity to do research in soil science.

Dr. Heitman and colleagues at NC State received a grant from the National Science Foundation to establish a Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) site focused on soil science, here at NC State.

Said Dr. Reitman, “It’s very valuable for us to engage students who come from a wide range of backgrounds outside of soils and agriculture, because when we bring them in, we expose them to not just the project they’re working on, but lots of different ideas and experience and to see what other people are doing in and around soils. And so, some of them chose to come into soils and study that in graduate school, but even those that don’t, which is quite a few of them, take away from here an appreciation for it that they can bring in to other disciplines, so when soils come up and they become part of the conversation, they’re informed about it and can really speak to how it’s important in almost anything that they’re doing.”

Read the full story from CSA New Magazine: https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/csa/articles/62/9/8

More information about the REU program:  https://reuncsu.wordpress.ncsu.edu/

Article by Kaki Carl