Each summer, a select number of college students from across the U.S. participate in Stone Lab’s competitive comprehensive research internship, the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Fellowship. Over eight weeks, students learn how to conduct real, in-the-field research alongside top scientists, gaining valuable professional experience.

For one former REU student, the experience has particular significance. Justin Chaffin, who completed the fellowship in 2006, went on to become Stone Lab’s research coordinator and now oversees the REU program.

“I was an undergrad at Bowling Green State University Firelands, and there was a flyer for field stations hanging on a bulletin board,” Chaffin said. “That’s where I found Stone Lab, and I started applying to a lot of different classes.”

From there, Chaffin took limnology and aquatic entomology classes at Stone Lab in 2005 before becoming an REU student in 2006, where he worked with Dr. Doug Kane on a mayfly experiment.

“For that project, just like all projects, you come up with a hypothesis and a study design. You conduct the experiment, collect the samples, analyze the data, and do a presentation,” Chaffin said. “I really liked doing that research, and I wanted to continue into graduate research, doing more work on harmful algal blooms.”

After leaving Stone Lab and graduating from Bowling Green with a biology degree, Chaffin went on to receive his master’s degree and Ph.D. in aquatic biology and limnology from The University of Toledo. In 2012, he began working as Stone Lab’s research coordinator.

Today, Chaffin leads vital research to better understand what drives cyanobacterial blooms and the production of different cyanotoxins on Lake Erie. He coordinates with visiting researchers using Stone Lab’s facilities and equipment, and he also works with student researchers, including those in the REU fellowship.

“The REU program is targeted to undergrad students who want to do work on an issue surrounding the Great Lakes,” Chaffin said, “I mentor students who do water quality research, but we also have REUs that work with fish and wildlife.”

Thanks to Stone Lab’s scholarship endowments, Stone Lab has given 153 students REUs worth nearly $600k since the program began in 2005.

REU projects span a wide range of topics. Students focusing on water quality can study phosphorus cycling, what causes harmful algal blooms to grow, the effectiveness of samplers and sensors, and how phytoplankton grow in a large mesocosm, Chaffin said. Other projects focus on fish, such as how harmful algal blooms affect walleye and smallmouth bass, or survey wildlife species, such as the white-tail deer population on South Bass Island.

“There’s lots of things students can get out of the program,” Chaffin said. “They might already know the scientific method, but here they get to experience it hands-on. They learn that their project might not go the way they expect, they learn how to course-correct, and they learn how to troubleshoot their methods if needed.”

Other students may learn that hands-on field research isn’t for them, yet they’ll still walk away with valuable research and data analysis skills, Chaffin said. The REU program also allows students to connect with students from around the country as well as visiting researchers and professionals.

REU students have gone on to earn master’s and doctorate degrees, often working in academia and the private and public sector, including for agencies such as the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife, and the U.S. EPA, Chaffin said.

“It really helps them network,” he continued. “Having experience on your resume that’s outside of a classroom really tells a future employer or a future grad school professor, whoever, that you’re really motivated to do this sort of work.”

For more information about the REU fellowship program, visit Stone Lab’s website or contact Chaffin at chaffin.46@osu.edu.

Ohio Sea Grant is supported by The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) School of Environment and Natural Resources, Ohio State University Extension, and NOAA Sea Grant, a network of 34 Sea Grant programs nation-wide dedicated to the protection and sustainable use of marine and Great Lakes resources. Stone Laboratory is Ohio State’s island campus on Lake Erie and is the research, education, and outreach facility of Ohio Sea Grant and part of CFAES School of Environment and Natural Resources.