Environmental Health Sciences - Transformative Research Undergraduate Experience (EHS-TRUE)

Arsenic in drinking water: colorless, odorless, tasteless...and responsible for one in five deaths in Bangladesh today!  Chemicals in plastics can mimic sex hormones.  Early-life exposure to farm animals prevents childhood asthma.  Environmental health scientists at the University of Arizona work at the cutting edge of understanding the relationships between environmental exposures, altered biological processes, and human disease.  Now you have the opportunity to work with them in researching environmental health problems, through the EHS-TRUE program!

Picture of an EHS-TRUE participant at the lab bench

The UArizona Environmental Health Sciences Transformative Research Undergraduate Experience (EHS-TRUE) Program is a prestigious, two-year undergraduate research training program for students from backgrounds underrepresented in the sciences, which provides pay for participants to conduct environmental health science research with some of the leading experts in this exciting area.  EHS-TRUE is funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), grant #2-R25-ES025494.  The program offers each participant two years of paid year-round training and research experience (15 hours/week during classes and 35 hours/week in summer) in EHS-TRUE faculty mentors’ research groups to help develop an understanding of environmental health sciences, to apply classroom learning to research in environmental health, and to aid in deciding on a career path.  Students take a professional development and career exploration course and an environmental health sciences colloquium during their two years in the program, and participate in activities (workshops, retreats, scientific conferences) to expand their research experience.  The goal of EHS-TRUE is to prepare undergraduates from underrepresented backgrounds to enter graduate programs in the environmental health sciences.

Because EHS-TRUE is offered under the UBRP umbrella, please be sure to read about UBRP on other parts of this site so that you understand the organization, expectations, and benefits of participation.

Participants in the EHS-TRUE Program will be involved in research for 12 weeks full-time in the summer and part time during the academic year.  This level of participation in research should allow participants to develop a scientific project to a level that can be presented at a scientific conference, and in many cases published with the student as a co-author.

Mentors & Projects

The following mentors can serve as research mentors for EHS-TRUE students:

Eligibility

EHS-TRUE is a prestigious opportunity for the highest caliber undergraduates, from backgrounds underrepresented in the sciences, to work with leading experts in environmental health sciences in developing research projects to serve as the focus of a two-year training program in environmental heath science research.  Eligible students can be from any major but must be undergraduates who:

Accelerated Master’s Program (AMP) undergraduates are eligible for EHS-TRUE prior to completion of a Bachelor’s degree.  Upon completion of the Bachelor’s degree and conversion to graduate standing, AMP students are no longer eligible for this program.

Application Process

Funding for the EHS-TRUE Program for 2025-2030 is currently under review by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Students interested in participating in EHS-TRUE for Summer 2025 should apply to UBRP and mark an interest in "environmental health sciences."  If funding for EHS-TRUE becomes available, UBRP staff will reach out to eligible UBRP applicants individually in March/April 2025 with next steps for applying to EHS-TRUE.  If not, students may participate in UBRP and select a mentor focused on research related to environmental health sciences if they wish.