<br clear="all">Dear colleagues,<br><br>A University-wide proposal will be submitted in the very near term to the Science Foundation Arizona Graduate Research Fellows Program, with the aim of seeking support for up to 33 outstanding, newly recruited doctoral
students. If supported, SFAz will provide a one-year fellowship stipend of $31,500 per student,
and the student will receive the full cost of tuition, mandatory registration fees and student health
insurance.<br><br>This is an important opportunity and I would like the School's newly recruited graduate majors in Plant Pathology and Plant Sciences to be considered for these fellowships.<br><br>To this end, I need to provide a list of our faculty to the proposal organizers that includes a statement of interests and a link to web profiles. This is a <u><b>provisional list of potential faculty mentors</b></u> -- basically, it states that if you would hypothetically be willing to mentor a student if one were a good fit for you. There is no commitment at this time. Because time is VERY tight I need to respond right away to the organizers. <br>
<br><b>Therefore, I would like to suggest that if you do NOT want to be considered a potential, provisional mentor on this non-binding list, please let me know by Thursday, Feb. 21 at 11am. </b><br><br><b>To opt out from the provisional, non-binding list please just send me a note that says 'opt out.' (<a href="mailto:Arnold@ag.arizona.edu">Arnold@ag.arizona.edu</a>).</b><br>
<br>Being included on our list will not 'stick you' with a student or create any other commitment; not appearing on this list will not exclude you in the future. This is just to give the organizers a sense of what we collectively offer and could provide as an intellectual/training community for incoming students. <br>
<br>I aim to submit our list of faculty and interests from our School website, filtered appropriately, at 11am tomorrow.<br><br>More information about the SFAz program is below.<br><br>Thank you, and I apologize for the short notice (had the flu).<br>
<br>Betsy<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br>The objectives of the program are:<br><br>o Recruit the
highest quality graduate students in the nation to Arizona’s
research universities to advance research in areas important to Arizona
i.e, BioScience, Information Technology and Communications, Clean Energy
and Environmental Sustainability, and Aerospace and Defense.<br> <br>o
Provide an immediate response to the need for more and better
STEM teaching in Arizona K-12 schools. Fellows may participate in
advancing existing formal and informal programs or seeding innovative
new programs for the purpose.<br><br>o Support interdisciplinary and
multidisciplinary research approaches as well as outstanding programs
within traditional STEM disciplines.<br> <br>o Encourage participation
in pre-professional and/or internships programs that
are entrepreneurial and, when possible, move the research from the
laboratory into the marketplace.<br> <br>o Ensure a serious focus on
the time-to-degree issue to ultimately create an advantage for Arizona’s
programs in graduate education.<br> <br>Measure the performance of the
GRF program by the increase in the competitive research capacity of the
State of Arizona. (SFAz GRF RFP 2.0, 2013)<br>-- <br><font size="1">---------------------------------<br>A. Elizabeth (Betsy) Arnold<br>School of Plant Sciences<br>The University of Arizona<br>Tucson, AZ 85721<br><br><a href="http://arnoldlab.net" target="_blank">http://arnoldlab.net</a><br>
<a href="mailto:arnold@ag.arizona.edu" target="_blank">arnold@ag.arizona.edu</a></font><br><br>