Research Opportunities
Provost's Undergraduate Research Fund
Research Apprenticeship Program
The Provost's Undergraduate Research Fund
The Provost's Undergraduate Research Fund provides awards to support research by undergraduate students enrolled full-time in an Athens campus college. The Assistant Dean of the Honors Tutorial College administers the fund. As defined by this program, "research" includes scientific studies as well as scholarly work and creative projects. A full-time faculty member must supervise students applying for these funds.
PLEASE NOTE: Students who have previously received awards from this fund are not eligible to receive additional funding for the same project.
However, they may apply for funding if they areundertaking a new research project, creative project or scholarly work.
PURF guidelines and application for 2008-09 can be downloaded here.
PLEASE NOTE!
Each recipient of PURF funding is expected to present his or her research at Ohio University's annual Research and Creativity Expo that is held mid-spring quarter. More information about registering for the Expo will be announced at the beginning of spring quarter.
Research Apprenticeship Program
The purpose of the Research Apprenticeship Program is to support faculty research by providing assistance from an Honors Tutorial College student. The intent is to support the faculty member in his/her research while at the same time providing the student with an opportunity to experience original research firsthand. The relationship is mutually beneficial and supportive.
All academic disciplines will be considered for Research Apprenticeships. The Dean of the Honors Tutorial College will contact Directors of Studies and Department Chairs each year regarding the number of apprenticeships available.
Eligibility
Faculty who have been Directors of Studies, tutors or thesis advisors for Honors Tutorial College students are eligible to submit proposals.
Application Procedure
Faculty members wishing to apply should submit the enclosed application form, which requires:
- a brief description of the research project planned for completion during the term of the apprenticeship
- experience/skills/benefits to be gained by the student during the apprenticeship
- qualifications expected from the student applicants (see application form).
Descriptions of the funded projects will be made available to students and Directors of Tutorial Studies. Students will contact faculty researchers for interviews. Faculty will make the final selection for their own research apprentices.
If additional funds are necessary for travel to research libraries or other appropriate activities, the college will consider requests. These funds will be for the expenses of the student only.
HTC Apprentices: Their Story
The Research Apprenticeship Program is unique to the Honors Tutorial College. The purpose of the program is to pair HTC students with professors to do mutually beneficial faculty-directed research. All HTC students, no matter what major, can be considered for research apprenticeships.
Erin Randall, HTC Social Work, was chosen to do a research project on firearm safety directed by Dr. Karen Carlson and Dr. Sylvia Hawranic. Erin said that the major benefits of the apprenticeship are learning how social workers conduct research and exploring directions her career could possibly go. In addition, Erin has met important faculty within her department at OU and with their help is learning the process of obtaining Institutional Reviews Board approval for research.
Dr. Kim Cuddington chose Melissa LaBonty, HTC Biological Sciences, to help her in a major project to analyze the effects of plant morphology on the predator-prey dynamics of aphids and ladybugs. Melissa is also helping Dr. Cuddington in a side project that tests the effects of varying extreme temperatures on the survival and reproductive abilities of the C. elegan, a small nematode commonly used in scientific research.
The benefits of the HTC Research Apprenticeship Program are limitless. According to Melissa, the experience in lab research and procedures she has gained is a great jumping off point for any Biological Sciences student. “Certainly this research apprenticeship will help me get into graduate school because of the exposure and practice I already have had in the lab,” Labonty said. The connections she has made with people in the national and international scientific community have helped her immensely, too.
In a different realm of research, Dan Layman is working on a Philosophy project directed by Dr. Mark LeBar. The student-faculty pair is writing a long paper that will eventually be a chapter in a larger book manuscript. The aim of the paper is to show how and why people have obligations to other people if the kind of ethical system proposed by Aristotle, called Eudaimonist Virtue Ethics, is right. In arguing that this kind of virtue ethics can sustain these moral constraints concerned with other people, the paper draws on material from Stephen Darwall's (Michigan) forthcoming book The Second Person Standpoint. Aside from helping Dr. LeBar, Dan is also working on a paper of his own, also about Darwall’s ideas, which he hopes to submit to philosophy conferences.
”The greatest benefits of a research apprenticeship in my field are the sustained professional contact with many philosophers. I have had the opportunity to not only get to know the professors at OU and use their expertise, but also to read and critique faculty members’ work.”
Research apprenticeships are available during both Spring and Summer quarters. Selection of HTC apprentices is decided by the faculty member to whom the student has requested to be an apprentice.