Councilor – Jeff Ryan

Jeff Ryan is a Professor in the School of Geosciences at the University of South Florida.  He first became a GeoCUR member in 1996 and a Councilor in 2000

“It was trying to learn how to mentor undergraduate researchers both effectively and efficiently that initially drew me to CUR. And it was the desire to learn more about “the other part of my job”, that of being a geoscience educator, that led me to run for Councilor (a couple times before being elected!); to participate in and help facilitate sessions and workshops at CUR Conferences; to serve as a rotating Program Officer in the Division of Undergraduate Education at NSF; to become more deeply involved in CUR, most recently as a member of the NCUR Oversight Committee, as a CUR Consultant, and as a facilitator in several different CUR Institutes. It has also led me to explore undergraduate research as a teaching practice in a more in-depth way, which has led to a large number of NSF-funded educational and faculty development-focused projects over the years, most recently related to the development of sustainable geoscience course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) by leveraging remotely operable analytical instrumentation. What I’ve learned through CUR has also allowed me to contribute to ongoing NAS and NSF supported national conversations on undergraduate research and undergraduate geoscience education.”