Powdermill Nature Reserve, the environmental research center of Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Rector, Pennsylvania, will host 16 international students this month for a workshop on temperate forest ecology.
Graduate students from the Instituto de Ecologica (INECOL) in Xalapa, Mexico will arrive at Powdermill on April 23, where they will stay and take classes through May 6.
“This is a great opportunity to share our facilities and expertise with international students,” said John Wenzel, director of Powdermill Nature Reserve. “These are incredibly bright students, and we are excited to work with them.”
The 16 graduate students are from Latin American countries including Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Mexico. They each have their particular area of interest such as habitat loss, agro-industrial waste management, disturbed ecosystems, and taxonomy and systematics of macrofungi.
Powdermill staff and several university guest professors will teach forest succession, GIS methods in ecology, animal-plant interactions, aquatic monitoring, limnology, amphibian ecology, and data analysis during the workshop.
During their stay at Powdermill, students will visit the National Aviary for a behind-the-scenes tour and Carnegie Museum of Natural History to meet with curatorial staff. They will also travel to Raystown Lake for a hands-on limnology lesson with Juniata College professors.
This workshop was made possible by a grant from the Myles D. Sampson Family Fund of The Community Foundation of Westmoreland County.
