Doctoral Dissertation Enhancement Projects

In doctoral dissertation enhancement projects, DDEP, Ph.D. students from a U.S. university conduct research abroad in collaboration with a foreign investigator. The projects are exclusively in the fields of science and engineering. Students and their supervising faculty can apply for financial awards to support these projects through the Office of International Science and Engineering of the National Science Foundation.

Grasshopper Migration in the Asian Steppe: Investigating Diet as a Cue for Polyphenism

In an outbreak year, swarming grasshoppers can negatively affect the livelihood of people in more than 60 countries. This project examines the diet of these swarming grasshoppers, investigating whether changes in specific plant characteristics might change their behavior from static to migratory. The research site is in China, and faculty from the Beijing Institute of Life Sciences and Arizona State University will work together on the project.

Efficient Processing of Polydisperse Particulate Mixtures

Particulate processing plants often have poor efficiency, frequent shutdowns and excess waste. At the core of these problems is a lack of a fundamental understanding of ways in which a driving force causes particles to behave. This focus of this project is to develop an understanding of why granular materials segregate or de-mix. The project is a collaboration between Rutgers University and The University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Evolutionary Consequences of Cenozoic Climate Change on African Reptile Diversification

This research claims that the effects of historical climate change on the diversification patterns of squamate reptiles are largely unexplored. The student is investigating the effects of such historical climate change on the evolution of the Lacertidae, a large family of African lizards. Considering deserts as the centers of reptile evolution, this project will help to fill gaps, both taxonomic and geographical, in the study of climate impact. This project is a collaboration between faculty at the University of California-Santa Cruz and the Museum of Natural History in Berlin.

Exploring Climatic and Human Drivers of Fire Regime in a High-Elevation Mexican Forest

This research project investigates the effects of El Nio-Southern Oscillation on naturally occurring outbreaks of fire in Mexico. A correlation between the two has been found in northern Mexico sites in the Sierra-Madras. The researcher in this project will establish a new field site in Central Mexico, gathering tree-ring data from fire-scarred trees. This research is a collaboration between the University of Northern Arizona and the "Instituto Nacional de Investigacion Forestal y Agropecuaria" in Mexico.