Undergraduate Research and the Growth of a Department

Details Undergraduate Research and the Growth of a Department Undergraduate Research and the Growth of a Department

Dec 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003aas...203.1907d&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society Meeting 203, #19.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 35, p.1238

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

According to American Institute of Physics statistics the College of Charleston's Department of Physics and Astronomy is second among all primarily undergraduate institutions in the production of physics and astronomy bachelor's degrees. A little over a decade ago the roster faculty of the department consisted of 5 physicists and 2 astronomers. Currently we have 13 filled positions including 6 astronomers and are hiring 3 additional faculty this year.
What has caused this growth? While there are a number of factors, our undergraduate research program is a major one. Although we have required a "senior project" for 30 years about 15 years ago we started encouraging students to present their work at both a college wide research poster session and the annual meeting of the South Carolina Academy of Science. We also began to encourage students to begin research earlier in their careers. At about the same time we received NSF funding to operate an automatic photometric telescope in southern Arizona. This facility greatly increased the opportunities available in astronomy. A decade ago venues for student presentations were expanded to include AAS meetings as well as others.
Undergraduate students, especially beginning ones, require very careful and time-consuming mentoring. In addition to funding from NSF our students have also been funded by the SC Space Grant and by internal funds. Even in the time of drastic budget cuts our president has begun funding 20 competitive summer research appointments for undergraduates as well as providing travel support for attendance at meetings.
In summary, our emphasis on undergraduate research has attracted students and in turn resulted in the administration granting us additional faculty lines. The new faculty hires have been instrumental in attracting even more students.
I would like to express my appreciation to my students and colleagues and to NSF for supporting our automatic telescope for the last 14 years under the following grants: #AST86-16362, #AST91-15114, #AST95-28906, and #AST-0071260.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Undergraduate Research and the Growth of a Department does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Undergraduate Research and the Growth of a Department, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Undergraduate Research and the Growth of a Department will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1417915