We’re “leaving on a jet plane”…well, actually on TWO jet planes….a record number of UWRF student abstracts have been accepted for NCUR 2010!!!

Some 50 UWRF student abstracts have been accepted for presentation at the 2010 National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) to be held in Missoula, Montana! Altogether this represents 66 student presenters, which tops the previous record when 42 UWRF students traveled to Lexington Virginia for NCUR 2005. Students going to NCUR 2010 represent 24 different fields from across the campus community…including:

Animal Science/ Pre Vet, Astrophysics, Art History, Bioengineering, Biology, Botany, Chemistry, Creative Writing, Criminology, Dance, Economics, Education, English, European Studies, Geology/Earth Sciences, History, International-Global Studies, Literature, Music, Nutrition and Food Science, Physics, Political Science, Psychology and Studio Art.

To accommodate such a large contingent, it was actually more cost effective for us to charter a jet! And, in fact, the UWRF Grants Office Director (Bill Campbell) and UWRF/SURSCA have taken the lead for the entire region by organizing collaborative travel arrangements for other campuses attending the meeting as well. This leadership role has snowballed into not just one “jet plane”, but two!!!! We now have commitments to fill two Sun Country 737’s with undergraduate researchers from across the region (both Wisconsin and Minnesota)! That’s approximately 324 mid-western UG researcher/scholars “leaving in a convoy” of our best and brightest to a major national research meeting! Participating institutions include: UW-Whitewater, Eau Claire, Stout, LaCrosse, and Platteville, plus University of Minnesota, Hamline, St. Scholastica, and St. John's/St. Ben's.

The UWRF student presenters travel will be funded through the SURSCA Falcon Grants program. Stay tuned for more details and student researcher profiles/interviews as the date approaches!