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The RI-INBRE Summer Undergraduate
Research Fellowship (SURF) Program offers summer research opportunities to qualified undergraduate students who are considering a possible career in biomedical
and behavioral research. The program targets, but is not limited to, racially and ethnically diverse students in their sophomore and junior college undergraduate years.
The goals of the program are to expose undergraduate students to laboratory research and to familiarize them with the opportunities that exist for careers in biomedical
and behavioral research. The program runs for ten weeks each summer
and includes three major components.
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The first and most important component involves a hands on research project with a faculty member where the student is exposed to contemporary methods and problems in biomedical
and behavioral research.
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The second component of the program includes a series of workshops and group instruction in which students are exposed to a variety of general research issues and practices as well as a variety of advanced research techniques that they are unlikely to see in individual laboratories. This includes tours and demonstrations of some of the equipment in the Centralized Research Core Facility at the University
of Rhode Island. Workshops also include:
- Scientific Ethics
- Chemical and Radiation Safety
- Laboratory Notebook Keeping
- Print and On-line Scientific Literature Searches
- Presentation of Research Results
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Scientific Writing
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The third component includes a Lecturer Series in which the students are exposed to a wide variety of education and career options through seminars presented by the Associate Dean of the Graduate School, faculty members, and past participants.
Additional activities during the program will include a visit to Pfizer, Inc.’s research facilities in Groton, CT, a
picnic, and the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows Conference. This
conference affords each participant the opportunity to present their scientific findings to a group of their peers and mentors.
Our inaugural program was held in the summer of 2001. The program has hosted 15-16 students each year from 2001 to the present.
The Summer Undergraduate Research
Fellowship Program provides an outstanding environment to learn first hand about a career in biomedical
and behavioral research. Many of our former participants have matriculated into Ph.D. and M.D./Ph.D. programs.
Please direct any comments or questions
regarding the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program
to riinbre@etal.uri.edu.
SURF Program
Coordinator:
David Rowley, Ph.D.
53 Fogarty Hall
College of Pharmacy
41 Lower College Road
Kingston, RI 02881
Phone: 401-874-9228
Fax: 401-874-2646
Email: drowley@uri.edu
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