PROGRAMS

The PI-CASC track of the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program is designed to provide promising undergraduates the opportunity to gain valuable research experience, improve their skills in climate science, and expand their knowledge of environmental issues in Hawaiʻi and Guam, working with a mentor on a climate-related research project aligned with the mission of the PI-CASC University Consortium. That mission aims to provide the best science available on climate change and other landscape-scale stressors that are impacting natural and cultural resources across the Pacific Basin.

Research project topics that PI-CASC has funded stretch from the mountains to the sea, from forests to fishponds, from rainfall to streamflow, from shorelines to sea levels. The Center also supports building capacity for the future, creating opportunities for students from all ethnic and academic backgrounds to gain important tools for conducting science and knowledge co-production for future research, management, and/or policymaking.

Depending on their location, students who are accepted will be paired with either a faculty researcher or extension agent at the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) at Mānoa, UH Hilo, or the University of Guam (UOG), or a mentor from a federal research enter (e.g., USGS, NOAA, EPA) whose field of expertise and ongoing research in climate science and/or adaptation complements the expressed interests of the student, to the extent possible.

In all its programs, PI-CASC endorses a diverse workforce in Hawaiʻi and the Pacific and embraces individuals of all ages, races, ethnicities, national origins, gender identities, sexual orientations, disabilities, cultures, religions, citizenship types, marital statuses, job classifications, veteran status types, and income and socioeconomic status types and intersectionalities.