About Us

SRESFS offers a variety of Environmental Sciences courses in its base program and also provides the opportunity for students to participate in ongoing research projects affiliated with member institutions, the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (SREL), and the Savannah River Nation Laboratory (SRNL). These student opportunities not only foster the pursuit of careers and post graduate degrees in STEM related areas, but also allow students to be competitive in these fields. The SRESFS offered 12 courses through South Carolina State University and USC-Aiken in its Course-Driven Internship during the Summer 2023 program cycle to 40 student interns from 28 institutions.

The Field Station concept was originally proposed in 1995 by Dr. Ambrose O. Anoruo, a science professor at South Carolina State University, and was funded by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) through the 1890 Institution Capacity Building Grant. The Field Station was also awarded funding through the Natural Resources Conservation Services as a Center of Excellence (COE) in the USDA.

Because of Dr. Anoruo’s earlier proposal, the Department of Energy (DOE) approved a grant in June 1996 to establish an environmental sciences field station at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, South Carolina.

Following the DOE’s approval, Dr. Leroy Davis, the president of SCSU at the time, invited other regional Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), as well as minority serving institutions (MSIs) and other majority institutions in the southeastern region to join the Savannah River Environmental Sciences Field Station (SRESFS).

Since its inception in 1995 and initial course offerings in 1998, the SRESFS has provided academic training and research opportunities to over 480 underrepresented students. The SRESFS has served to support, and in some cases redirect, the careers of students into fields of environmental science/ engineering and natural resources management. Though managed by South Carolina State University, the SRESFS has functioned as a collaborative effort with 31 member institutions, mostly Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), six of which are 1890 Land Grant institutions. The SRESFS advisory board consists of a representative from each member institutions part of its function is the recruit into the summer program.