The Science Research Initiative celebrates the graduation of its first cohort.

April showers bring May flowers (and this year in Utah, snow), but more than just plants bloom each spring at the University of Utah. All over campus, students blossom into graduates after years of growth. Among the graduating class this year are many of the first cohort of students of the Science Research Initiative (SRI), marking the four-year anniversary of the program.

The SRI was created to involve undergraduate students in research from their very first day on campus. Former College of Science dean Henry White had the vision for this program and in 2019 passed the torch to Dean Peter Trapa at a critical time when there was a lot of investment. The main goal of the SRI is to facilitate relationships between faculty researchers and students. “We have a lot of great faculty researchers at the U, and there wasn’t a good mechanism to connect students with them, so the program helps eliminate those barriers,” says SRI Director Josh Steffen. The program puts students and faculty in contact and makes expectations of the partnership clear.

NAVIGATING THE PANDEMIC

During its inaugural year, the SRI was still able to engage with students despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit: Mathew Crawley

During its inaugural year, the SRI was still able to engage with students despite the COVID-19 pandemic that disrupted the majority of campus activities. For some first- and second-year students, the initial SRI cohort was their only connection with the College of Science during an extremely difficult time. “In the SRI, I felt so cared for and supported both during the pandemic and after," says senior Anika D’Souza. "The program really helped me feel like I can do science.”

“I feel lucky that I started with the SRI because we were taught the methods, and then we were given the opportunity to ask novel questions,” says senior Parker Guzman. With the motto “learn by doing” in mind, budding scientists in the SRI jumpstart their first fall semester at the U with an introductory class designed to teach them about how science happens, help them establish a community within the college, and discover where their research interests lie. The following spring semester, students are planted in a research stream that best fits their interests and begin their scientific journeys.

Current research streams span many scientific disciplines from mathematics to organic chemistry and to climate science. A sampling of projects include “Spintronics and Quantum Sensing,” “Pollination Biology” and “The Geochemistry of Noble Gases.” These streams aren’t just limited to the College either. Students can participate in cancer biology research with the Huntsman Cancer Institute, conservation projects with the Hogle Zoo or Red Butte Garden, or ecological inquiries with the Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District.

At its core, the SRI is a program designed to engage students in research, but its impact stretches much further. Early data indicate that SRI students are more likely to stay engaged in the College, maintain a higher GPA, earn other scholarships, and pursue additional research opportunities. Junior Chelsea Bordon says the SRI was a pivotal part of her first year at the U. “Getting into STEM can be really hard, but the SRI helped me meet so many people with different backgrounds that I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise which made that process easier.”

SRI Post-doctoral researcher Rodolfo Probst with undergraduates in Costa Rica.

IMPACTFUL EMPIRICAL RESULTS

While the student experience is at the heart of the SRI, the program engages with and enhances the scientific community beyond the U. Research projects facilitated by the program produce tangible and impactful empirical results that are shared in publications and presented at conferences. Members of the SRI get the opportunity to interact with the broader scientific community at gatherings on the local and national level. SRI students and postdoctoral researchers have presented at a number of conferences including the Ecological Society of America, American Chemical Society, Joint Math Meeting, Wildlife Society Meeting, Math for All, and Southwestern Social Science Association.

In addition to generating empirical evidence, the SRI contributes to the scientific community by creating space for scientists early in their professional academic careers. Postdocs were introduced to the program as stream leaders two years in. Not only do they help the program provide access to more undergraduates, but the postdocs themselves learn as well. Very few positions exist for postdocs to develop their skills after graduate school. As stream leaders for the SRI, they get the opportunity to mentor larger groups of students and run their own research groups. Out of the five post-doc researchers in the first cohort, three have already landed professorships at other research universities.

The SRI is unique from other undergraduate research programs because the experimentation extends beyond the physical laboratory. The program itself is an exploratory space where students can discover their passions — whether that’s in science or elsewhere. As the students are performing experiments, they’re also testing out the experience of being a researcher. The program invites curiosity and innovation with no one criterion of what success looks like.

“Coming into college, I had no idea what I wanted to do. The SRI helped me realize my love for biology and gave me skills as a researcher that will help me succeed in grad school,” says senior Sydney Larsen. Like Larsen, the rest of the first cohort of students graduating this year have their sights set high. Many are continuing their scientific careers in graduate programs, some are headed to medical school, and others have found their path outside of the sciences (one is the author of the article you’re reading right now).