Last Thursday and Friday, the Science Center atrium was lined on both sides by student posters exhibiting student-faculty research conducted in Oberlin this summer.

Guest speaker Lori Bettison-Varga, president of the Council for Undergraduate

Research, gave an opening address for the research celebration on Thursday evening, emphasizing the importance of undergraduate research to education. The CUR, a national non-profit of which Oberlin is a member, advocates for undergraduate research by helping institutions implement and fund research programs.

“I am impressed with how much energy [Professor of Biology] Dr. [Yolanda] Cruz put into coordinating the summer program,” said Bettison-Varga. “It sounds like the research projects were terrific and the connection through the group programming enhanced the overall summer experience.”

Students stood by their posters during the Friday lunch hour sharing their work with each other, faculty members and passers-by.  The hall was abuzz with exchanges of information and ideas.

The celebration of student-faculty research was sponsored in part by the Oberlin Summer Research Institute, a program newly designed this year, which aimed to create a community of researchers in Oberlin this summer. 

OSRI sponsored weekly lunches for students and faculty featuring talks about various aspects of the research process. The institute also funded the printing of student posters.

“While poster sessions are a typical venue for scientists to present their work,” said Bettison-Varga, “that is not the case for other disciplines. It was particularly impressive that there was a broad cross-section of disciplines represented in this first summer research celebration, including the social sciences and humanities.” 

The poster display brought closure to the summer’s work.