Faculty and staff from Rice’s schools of Natural Sciences and Engineering and the university’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry (OURI) welcomed 125 visiting undergraduate summer researchers to campus at a May 29 reception in Duncan Hall.
Hands-on research experience is one of the most effective ways to attract students to careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. For many college students, such opportunities are limited or unavailable during the regular school year.
The National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program allows students to apply to work in labs during the summer, typically in paid positions. Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF), which are funded by Rice and available through programs in OURI and Natural Sciences, offer similar opportunities to undergraduate applicants from under-resourced backgrounds.
Natural Sciences laboratories are hosting 55 SURF and 17 REU undergraduate researchers this summer. The welcome reception gave them and summer researchers from other labs a chance to meet one another, faculty and graduate student mentors.
Visit reu.rice.edu to learn about REUs at Rice and ouri.rice.edu for information about SURF.