About the Nyanza Project

This Can Be Your Laboratory

Lake Tanganyika, the largest lake in the African Rift Valley, is the location of the Nyanza Project, a research opportunity for outstanding undergraduates, graduates and secondary school teachers interested in tropical lakes. Lake Tanganyika provides:

stunning opportunities to study paleoclimatology and geology in a continental rift that cradles one of the world's oldest lakes (~10 million years).
a living laboratory of evolution, with extraordinary biodiversity and over 600 endemic species
a chance to study the effects of changing climate and human impacts on large lake ecosystems.

Join An International Team

The Nyanza Project is sponsored by the Paleoclimate Program, Division of Atmospheric Sciences, of the U.S. National Science Foundation. The project is run by The University of Arizona for the International Decade of East African Lakes (IDEAL), an organization that promotes research and training on African lakes. As a participant in the Nyanza Project you will join a team of U.S. and African students in a 7-week program of training and independent research.

Learn on Location

Where: The program will be based in Kigoma, Tanzania, a small town on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika.

When: The program will run June 25th-August 13th, 2007. Students will need to arrive several days in advance for orientation.

Admissions: Any undergraduate and graduate student attending a U.S. college or university, and secondary school teacher, may apply, regardless of nationality. In order to be considered for admission you must be completing your sophomore year by the summer of 2007. Students from under-represented minority groups are particularly encouraged to apply. Students enrolled in the Nyanza Project will have all of their expenses paid (air fare, room/board and research costs) by the project and will receive a summer stipend.

Faculty

Andrew Cohen, Nyanza Project Director, Paleoecology Mentor, The University of Arizona

Ellinor Michel, Project Assistant Director/Field Acting Director, Evolutionary Biology Mentor, The Natural History Museum (UK) and The University of Arizona

Kiram Lezzar, Project Administrator and Coordinator, Limnogeology Mentor, The University of Arizona

Hudson Nkotagu, Hydrogeology Mentor, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Catherine O'Reilly, Limnology Mentor, Bard College

Jonathan Todd, Paleoclimatology Mentor, The Natural History Museum, London, UK

Ismael Kimirei, Fisheries Mentor, Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute (TAFIRI), Kigoma, Tanzania