Undergraduate Researchers Convene at OSU For 24th Annual CIC SROP Conference

Undergraduate Researchers Convene at OSU For 24th Annual CIC SROP Conference

Undergraduate Researchers Convene at OSU For 24th Annual CIC SROP Conference

Jul 21, 2010, 10:10 AM

Columbus, Ohio – Ohio State University will host 450 students from colleges and universities nationwide for the 24th annual CIC Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP) Research Conference on July 23-25, 2010. Sponsored by the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), SROP...

Columbus, Ohio – Ohio State University will host 450 students from colleges and universities nationwide for the 24th annual CIC Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP) Research Conference on July 23-25, 2010. Sponsored by the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), SROP students represent a diverse cohort of outstanding undergraduates who have dedicated their summer to full-time research under the mentorship of a faculty member at a CIC member university.

Highlights of the conference include a reception with OSU President E. Gordon Gee; poster sessions and discussion roundtables; networking with faculty and SROP alumni; and a recruitment fair. Astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, will deliver the keynote address; the recent PBS/NOVA documentary, "The Pluto Files," (based on Tyson’s book by the same title) chronicles his experience at the center of the controversy over Pluto's planetary status.

SROP targets students from groups underrepresented in graduate education, providing enrichment and professional development to strengthen their transition to graduate study. Since 1986, CIC SROP has sponsored 11,800 research internships, counting 388 completed Ph.D. degrees and thousands of graduate students among its alumni. Two thirds of SROP participants are women, and more than three-fourths are members of underrepresented minority groups.

“This summer, I am excited to bridge history with politics to explore the Haitian-Dominican diplomatic, social, and economic interactions and relationship after the 2010 earthquake,” said Aquiles Damiron, a University of Virginia student who is spending his summer doing research under the mentorship of Adrian Burgos at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “Given the revival of the Dominican-Haitian relations after decades of conflict and tolerated peace, I am curious about the process through which countries surmount unremitting conflicts and the impetus behind the recent attempts to revive the Dominican-Haitian relations.”

For more information
, please contact Yolanda Zepeda at zepeda@staff.cic.net or 217-390-4265.