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Record Number of UWRF Students to Present Research Nationally

APRIL 5, 2010--More than 70 University of Wisconsin-River Falls students and their professors will present and compete in the upcoming National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), the Super Bowl of undergraduate research.

A record number of UWRF students, faculty, and staff will travel this month to the national conference, says Bill Campbell, UWRF director of grants and research. More than 2,000 students representing every state and a host of countries will compete at the University of Montana in Missoula, April 15-17. Participants will present their work through posters, oral presentations, and displays of art.

 “NCUR is the pre-eminent national conference for undergraduates to present their research, scholarship, and creative activity,” Campbell says. “We have been sending students to NCUR since 2002, but this is by far our largest contingent to date, so large that we, along with other schools in Wisconsin and Minnesota, have chartered two 737s to fly us to Missoula and back.”

Timothy Lyden, associate professor of anatomy and physiology and director of UWRF Tissue and Cellular Innovation Center, says he is excited to showcase the quality and quantity of the students’ work.

“This is our ninth year of student participation in NCUR presentations and we have now taken nearly 300 students in total to this premier national-level event,” Lyden notes. Six members of the faculty and academic staff will be traveling with the students, including Chancellor Dean Van Galen.

“It is always amazing to see the effect of ‘high-impact’ undergraduate research in general and NCUR specifically on these students,” says Lyden. “They leave campus as young students and they return four days later as young professionals after having benchmarked themselves to peers from across the nation, and our students always come out very, very well in that type of comparison. In short, they are very good at what they do.”

The UWRF students presenting at this year’s NCUR represent 24 different fields including: animal science/pre-veterinarian, astrophysics, art history, bioengineering, biology, botany, chemistry, creative writing, criminology, political science, dance, economics, English, European studies, history, international studies, literature, music, education, nutrition and food science, physics, geology/earth science, psychology and studio art.

NCUR, established in 1987, is dedicated to promoting undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative activity in all fields of study by sponsoring an annual conference for students.

Through its annual conference, NCUR creates a unique environment for the celebration and promotion of undergraduate student achievement, provides models of exemplary research and scholarship, and helps to improve the state of undergraduate education, in addition to providing a forum for student presentations and performances.

For more information on NCUR, visit http://www.umt.edu/ncur2010 and to read more about UWRF student participants, visit http://sursca-uwrf.blogspot.com.

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Last updated: Thursday, 22-Apr-2010 16:10:03 Central Daylight Time