Alumni Network Is Up and Running!

Register Today!

As you know, over the past few months
we have worked towards establishing a UBRP Alumni Network.

The network is now electronic and functional (but we expect to add more features as we go along). If you would like to be added to the network, and see who is already registered, please go to the following URL:

http://ubrp.arizona.edu/alumni/registration.cfm

and complete the electronic form. That is all there is to it!

Posters on Capitol Hill.

Would you be interested in sharing your research with members of Congress in Washington, DC? If so, please apply to present at the annual Council on Undergraduate Research, Posters on Capitol Hill event. It takes place in April, and is competitive. UBRP students have presented in the past. An added bonus is the opportunity to meet and interact with the Arizona Congressional Delegation. Interested? Please see below:

We are now accepting applications from students to present their research at our 9th Annual Posters on the Hill event. The tentative date for the event is April 19, 2005. We have selected this date in the hopes that it will make it easier for students who are accepted to both our poster session and the NCUR annual meeting to attend both events, as NCUR's meeting will be in Lynchburg, VA from April 20 - 23, 2005. We have also scheduled our event to coincide with our CUR Dialogues meeting which will be held April 17-19, 2005 in Arlington, VA.

Apply at: http://www.cur.org/postersession.html.

Water, Citizenry, and Biodiversity in the South of Costa Rica

The world’s rivers are dwindling. Populations grow, new generations need more water, and there is less of it. As rivers (and other bodies of water) run dry the land around them alters in ways that are only beginning to be studied.

Some regions are more besieged than others: Latin America, with its packed capitols, is one. Just as countries in the north are beginning to remove dams, after forty years of witnessing the damage they do, Latin nations are beginning to build them. What is the true worth of a river? How to measure this? How to put worth into words? Everywhere, as water runs out, these questions are being asked.

Central America’s largest dam is to be built in the south of Costa Rica. For years, local farmers, children, and housewives have tried, almost fruitlessly, to call attention to changes they see in rivers that feed into the main river that will be dammed. The south is home to much of Costa Rica’s biodiversity; a number of large national and multinational agro-industries are also here, including a subsidiary of Del Monte pineapple, the world’s leading producer of the fruit. For many reasons it has been hard to raise questions openly about whether local rivers are in fact dwindling, whether the cluster of agriculture industries located here, in combination with numerous farms and ranches, are sustainable over time (whether their collective irrigation is), and about how else local people might earn a living in ways that don’t damage the environment as much.

Several projects in the south are now attempting to look to give tentative shape to a new economy. A few local families from this region are looking to host students from different backgrounds: young scientists, artists, and scholars from different fields. Currently three students, two from Stanford and one from the University of Florida, are completing one- and three-month residencies. Two of the students collaborated on a photography project based in a local high school: Youth were given cameras and assigned to take pictures of the environment, of rivers, and of their town. Art has a particular role to play in raising awareness about the natural world. Only by coming into contact with beauty, seeing it closely, newly and in its complexity, can we save it. One student taught English to students of differing ages.

Young scientists can offer much to this area. And the area has much to offer. Residencies can be crafted around different, creative, projects, and last for differing amounts of time.

How, in an environment-minded country, is it possible that one of the largest and most important basins is deteriorating? There is much for students to, not only learn, but also become closely involved with in this area.

For information about residencies in the south of Costa Rica, contact: Madeline Kiser881-1531, mkiser@dakotacom.net