Boston Undergraduate Research Center (BURC) Pilot Program Begins
This fall (September 2004), Boston University (BU) and Roxbury Community College (RCC) launched a one-year pilot program for an undergraduate research center funded by the Chemistry Directorate of the National Science Foundation (NSF). NSF’s goal is to support collaborations between research universities and two- and four-year colleges, as well as with secondary schools to encourage students to pursue research careers in chemistry and chemistry-related areas.The BU/RCC pilot program invites students to attend monthly “Introduction to Research” seminars in Fall 2004 and Spring 2005. In Summer 2005, four freshman/sophomore students from RCC and four from BU will be invited to participate in the pilot program’s research phase. Each student will receive a $4,000 stipend for eight weeks of research effort and will write a final report and make a public presentation of research results.
Concurrently, Boston University, under the direction of Stan Hartman, Professor of Chemistry, Ray Turner, Executive Dean of Instructional Technology & Special Projects at RCC, and other collaborators will be developing a proposal to NSF to advance from the pilot program to a full Boston Undergraduate Research Center. If successful, the Center would be established in Fall 2005.