Water@UW-Madison is seeking mentors for the 2025 Freshwater@UW summer research opportunities program. Submit a project using the link below by Oct 25, 2024.
Freshwater@UW matches undergraduate students to mentored projects. The program runs for about 8 weeks during the summer and culminates in a research symposium and poster session in early August. Mentors should expect to guide students in the execution of an independent research project that will help develop the skills, knowledge and abilities they need for future study.
- 2024 Project Story – Andrew Glasgow & Dr. Haoran Wei – PFAS detection
- 2024 Project Highlight Video – Natasha Kreiger & Dr. Sarah Jansen – Microplastics
- 2023 Project Highlight Video – Avery Leigh & Jess Briggs – Urban pond project
- 2022 Project Highlight Video – Manasi Simhan & Dr. Eric Roden – Wisconsin River geologic study
Freshwater@UW provides the following:
- $6,600 in participant support (administered by the program)
- Travel to and from the host site
- Housing and segregated fees
- General orientation and cohort support
- weekly professional development seminar
- Capstone research symposium at UW-Madison
Note: We do not provide project-specific funding (like field equipment, travel to field sites, laboratory analysis, or mentor salary).
Student applications are open Nov. 1 – Feb 15. Students will review project descriptions and rank their top 3 choices. We will work with mentors to match students by mid-March. Students will be onsite for research June through the end of July. This summer, we have funding for at least 27 students, thanks to Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Sea Grant, the Water Resources Institute and the UW-Madison Graduate School. Given funding limitations, we may not be able to match every project submitted.
Please review the program’s commitments and expectations, and submit a project if you are interested in mentoring during the 2025 summer using the form below. Check out last year’s project catalog if you’d like to know what our program has supported in the past.
The form requests the following information:
- Your name
- Institutional affiliation
- Location of primary research site
- Project description (~150-200 words)
- Required knowledge, skills or abilities
- Preferred knowledge, skills or abilities
- Tasks to be undertaken by the mentee
- Work hours / week
- Keywords
Thanks to all who have submitted a project so far! Here is the draft 2025 project catalog. This is not yet complete, but will be posted on the student application page on 1 Nov, 2024.
Reach out to Alison Mikulyuk with questions (contact info below).
Return to the Freshwater@UW home page.
Program Contact:
Dr. Alison Mikulyuk
alison.mikulyuk@aqua.wisc.edu
UW-Madison
1975 Willow Drive
Madison, WI 53706-1103