Achievement

In 2010, two new 1 credit hour classes were introduced into the NSMS curriculum: In the Fall semester, IGERT Fellows focus on development of an interdisciplinary research proposal and its articulation in written form. The class focuses on how to write explicitly for a interdisciplinary audience. Students are encouraged to develop essays that enable them to apply for other graduate fellowships, e.g. NSF Graduate Research Fellowships in an interdisciplinary field. In the Spring semester, IGERT Fellows are asked to select a seminal paper from their research field. As part of an oral presentation, they are required to break the paper down into its building blocks from the basic sciences, and then show how these disciplines come togther to create a new interdisciplinary field. In both classes an emphasis is placed on peer review and feedback within the context of how to present and explain research to an interdisciplinary audience.