USU honors eight undergraduate mentors
Eight Utah State University faculty members were recently presented the Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor award.
The recipients are: Dr. Kenneth Bartkus, professor of Business Administration; Janis Boettinger, associate professor of plants, soils and biometeorology; Eadric Bessel, director of the Biomechanics Laboratory; Barton Smith, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering; Bonnie Glass-Coffin, associate professor and program director of sociology, social work and anthropology; Helgra Van Miegroet, associate professor in both aquatic, watershed and earth resources, and in forest, range, and wildlife sciences; Daryll DeWald, associate professor of biology; and Susan Talley, an assistant professor of family and human development at Vernal‚s Utah State Extension site.
“From my perspective, undergraduate research supplements other aspects of the education process by allowing students the opportunity to engage in scholarly research,” Bartkus said. “This experience should, according to conventional wisdom, increase the probability of success in subsequent parts of their lives.
Bartkus has served as a faculty mentor to three undergraduate researchers since 2002, and is currently a mentor for a Vice President for Undergraduate Research Fellow. He was also the first Utah State faculty member to promote participation in the state‚s Research on the Hill event for the College of Business.
Boettinger has funded seven undergraduate researchers in her lab over the past three years and helped with research on inventory and data-quality assessment, soil carbon distribution and quality in the Intermountain West, and others.
Bressel‚s personal philosophy for research is to “provide students with an appreciation of the many opportunities that transpire from getting involved with research and to give students the resources and guidance needed to discover information using the scientific approach.” Since the Spring of 2003, Bressel has mentored four undergraduate research projects.
Smith came to Utah State from Los Alamos National Laboratory in December 2001, and has mentored eight students since then. From Los Alamos, he brought considerable specialized equipment to assist undergraduates explore new ideas for thermoacoustics, according the USR office.
Glass-Coffin‚s work with the Ethnographic Field School has resulted in supervised learning experiences for students in Peru and Ecuador, and leadership experience for the department of sociology, social work and anthropology. Over the past five years she has worked closely with more than a dozen professional presentations and exhibits of undergraduates.
Van Miegroet has been at Utah State for more than 10 years and has regularly mentored between three and five undergraduate students in her wildland soils lab. Currently, she and two students are preparing a paper for an international forestry journal. She has been beneficial in receiving grant funds for undergraduate research, and also providing students with increased opportunities for field and laboratory experience at the T.W. Daniel Research Forest, located at the top of Logan Canyon.
DeWald has mentored 30 undergraduate students and views these students as junior colleagues who are at Utah State to learn about problem solving and to mature into high-quality scientists, according to the USR pamphlet. Over the past eight years, 14 of DeWald‚s students have gone to medical or dental school; one is currently enrolled in a doctoral program, with three others to follow.
Talley has developed a child laboratory and an adolescent mentoring program in the Uintah Basin‚s extension site, providing students with opportunities that are usually found only in urban cities. She has also implemented a peer mentoring project for undergraduate students, as well as the Uintah Basin Research Conference which allows Extension students to present their research.
For more information regarding undergraduate research at Utah State University, contact Joyce Kinkead at (435) 797-1706, or visit www.usu.edu/vpr.