UA Students Get State Research Money

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Forty-six University of Arkansas students were awarded State Undergraduate Research Fellowships for the 2006-2007 academic year. The grants will fund a variety of research projects in agriculture, architecture, the arts, business, engineering and the sciences.

This is the 10th year in a row that the university has led the state in the number of students receiving the SURF awards. The individual state grants ranged from $375 to $1,250, and together totaled $35,629.75. The university provided matching funds for each student. In addition, each student’s faculty mentor received a $1,000 grant, and all but three students requested and received $400 for travel costs associated with their research projects. In all, the SURF grants to the university totaled $98,979.75.

“Faculty-student partnerships in research are critically important to us as an institution committed both to research and to teaching," said University of Arkansas Chancellor John White. "The SURF awards encourage this interaction so key in a student's intellectual and career development. That our students are applying in large number with strong faculty support means these important connections are being made."

The SURF awards are available to any undergraduate student with a 3.5 grade-point average who is planning a research or artistic project for the coming year. To be considered for the fellowship, a student must be nominated by a faculty mentor. Nominees submit a five-page project/research proposal and additional letters of recommendation.

The SURF program was created in 1992 with a start-up grant from the National Science Foundation and is intended to foster active student/mentor relationships. After two years, funding for the fellowships shifted from the science foundation to the state of Arkansas.

"The SURF program has had a profound effect on undergraduate research in this state,” said Collis Geren, dean of the UA Graduate School and a long-time member of the state SURF committee. "We’ve seen an enormous increase in student research activity, and the student/faculty relationships that have developed because of these awards are remarkable. It’s such a pleasure to see the success this program has achieved, and the ways it has inspired students, both here and around the state.”

Of the 46 award recipients this year, 30 students are enrolled in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences; six students are in the College of Engineering; five are in the Sam M. Walton College of Business; there are two students each from the Dale Bumpers College of Agriculture, Food and Life Sciences and the College of Education and Health Professions; one student is enrolled in the School of Architecture.

"SURF grants provide important funding for research materials and for financial support so students can focus on their projects. Participating in research in turn makes students more competitive for graduate, medical and law schools and for top positions in their fields," said Suzanne McCray, associate dean of the Honors College and director of the Office of Post-Graduate Fellowships. "University of Arkansas SURF recipients have gone on to be Rhodes, Marshall, Barry Goldwater, Morris Udall, Truman and Fulbright scholars and more."

The SURF program grant is administered through Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Ark., and the annual Arkansas Undergraduate Research Conference is held at Henderson State's campus where most UA SURF recipients present their research. A journal of student papers is published from those proceedings.

For more information on this year's conference, scheduled for April 27 and 28, visit http://www.hsu.edu/. For more information about these UA students, their proposals and their faculty mentors, contact the UA Honors College at 575-7678.