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Welcome from the Dean
Greetings and welcome to WVU’s 2021 “Virtual” Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium.
Tom Cech, past president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, once wrote that undergraduate research is the most inefficient teaching we do — and we need more of it.
Cech noted this because, while it is inefficient, this sort of engaged scholarship, whether research, creative activity or other scholarly work, is also the most transformative for the individual student. I am confident that the experiences of the undergraduates whose work we appreciate here today have been just as impactful. Personally, I, too, can attest that my experiences as an undergraduate researcher altered the whole trajectory of my career.
To the undergraduate students who have performed the work as part of this symposium, congratulations. Congratulations for staying the course to bring your respective projects to this point. Congratulations on seizing the opportunity to do more, on challenging yourself to perform at a higher level. Congratulations also for managing your time, and yourself, at a higher level.
And while it is you and your work that we celebrate today, this work did not happen in a vacuum. I want to express my sincere appreciation to the people who have mentored our undergraduate scholars. This may have been another undergraduate student, a graduate student, a post-doctoral associate, a staff member or even a faculty member. Regardless of your title, thank you for taking the time to mentor these students. I hope and am trusting that our mentors found this work equally rewarding.
Scholarly work is challenging by nature. Those engaged in such work usually have a support network beyond their respective mentors that is key to their emotional and mental well-being, which is so critical in advancing their work. These support networks often include parents, grandparents, guardians, spouses, partners, advisors, siblings and other friends. To those in such networks, thank you for the important role you played in advancing the work we celebrate today.
The work showcased in this symposium is underwritten by several different funding sources; chief among them is WVU SURE funding. The SURE program is directed by Dr. Michelle Richards-Babb and co-director Dr. Rita Rio with assistance from three graduate teaching assistants: Morgan Simpson, Sarah Lempka and Emily Heller. A special thanks to these folks for all their work this summer making the SURE program such a success. Other organizations have underwritten individual projects, and you can see those organizations in this volume. I am very grateful for all the funding sources but would especially like to acknowledge the funding from the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) programs, the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP), various research fellowships and internships, and especially the support to our Beckman Scholars.
The Office of Undergraduate Research is responsible for facilitating this symposium. The Office is directed by Dr. Michelle Richards-Babb and co-director Dr. Cinthia Pacheco with assistance from program coordinators Paige Zalman and Kevin Walden. I appreciate the great work of this office in putting this symposium together, but also more broadly for advancing undergraduate research at West Virginia University. In particular, I would like to acknowledge, congratulate, and thank Dr. Michelle Richards-Babb, the founding director of the Office of Undergraduate Research, for her outstanding work growing the undergraduate research enterprise at WVU.
Well done all.
Best regards,
Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry
Dean of the WVU Honors College
