Achievement

Second-year trainees in our IGERT develop and implement an interdisciplinary collaborative project. A faculty member participates as a mentor and advisor, but otherwise does not direct the research.

The faculty mentor for the 2011 cohort's second year project, Jim Sanchirico, is an economist with extensive experience as a research staff member for a think tank, Resources for the Future. Sanchirico's experience outside the academy has been seminal for this cohort.

In a traditional academic setting, faculty and graduate students tend to let the research dictate timelines: they define a research question, carry it out, and prepare a publication when they have a completed product. In contrast, Sanchirico has urged the students to work backwards from their completion date to set appropriate intermediate deadlines for completing research tasks, with the research refined accordingly. This approach has caused the project to progress rapidly and productively.