Undergraduate Research

Research is learning at its best—creative, absorbing, challenging. It allows you to experience firsthand the processes of scholarly exploration and discovery that characterize academic life. It is an integral part of study in all disciplines at Richmond.

You’ll perform your research at various locations—both on and off campus. Our science students take advantage of the state-of-the-art resources in the Gottwald Center for the Sciences, which recently underwent a $37 million renovation and expansion, transforming it into one of the leading facilities for student-faculty research and learning in the country.

U.S.News & World Report recently ranked Richmond among the top 35 schools in the country for undergraduate research and creative projects programs. According to the magazine, students in those programs “do intensive and self-directed research or creative work that results in an original scholarly paper or other product that can be formally presented on or off campus.”

Everything You Need

You’ll have access to nearly 20 teaching laboratories, more than 50 student-faculty research laboratories and outstanding study spaces including a resource library with the latest periodicals, reference materials and online access to the reference collection. You’ll also have hands-on access to an extensive array of scientific equipment and instrumentation including electron microscopes, 300- and 500-megahertz high field super conducting nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers, gas chromatograph-mass spectrometers, Fourier transform-infrared spectrometers, an electron paramagnetic resonance spectrometer, computer imaging systems and a super computer cluster.

Student-faculty research also takes place beyond the sciences. Our psychology department offers excellent animal, laboratory and computer facilities. In Weinstein Hall—opened in 2003 as the new home for the departments of rhetoric and communication studies, political science, journalism and sociology and anthropology—faculty and students engage in the interdisciplinary study of culture, communication and policy in one of the most beautiful facilities on campus.

What Interests You?

Here are some highlights of undergraduate research projects currently taking place on campus:

Jasmine Major, ’09, is studying the relationship between preservatives in vaccines and behavioral differences in autistic children.

Bryan Der, ’08, is assisting in the development of a biosensor that measures glucose concentrations.

Amanda Lavin, ’06, is utilizing art to investigate the ways in which our minds fragment or distort memory.

Daniel English, ’07, is adapting a theoretical environmental policy to streamline its implementation.

Adam Johnson, ’08, is researching the way the protein MDH works inside a living cell.

Additional information on the latest undergraduate research can be found at the Richmond Research Institute.

A small sampling of other recent student research projects includes:

  • Painting and philosophy in the Age of Enlightenment (art)
  • Afro-Cuban music—an original composition (music)
  • The Latino population in Richmond (sociology)
  • Civilians during the Civil War (history)
  • The evolution of frogs (biology)
  • The intaglio printmaking process (art)
  • Friendships in young adulthood (psychology)
  • The history of mathematics (mathematics)
  • The political climate of the Taiwan Strait (political science/international studies)
  • The effects of drugs on cells (biology)
  • Architecture in Turkey (classics)
  • Original dance choreography (theatre and dance)

Once the research is complete, you’ll have ample opportunity to share your findings at regional and national conferences such as the American Chemical Society, the American Society for Cell Biology or the National Conference on Undergraduate Research; in papers that are published in some of the world’s most prestigious scholarly journals; and at the annual University of Richmond Arts and Sciences Student Symposium.

Whether it’s a project you’ve dreamed up in your own head, a project you’ve developed with a faculty member or a project that is part of a faculty member’s ongoing research, you’ll be turned loose to do what it is you do best—unravel mysteries, solve problems and get results.

You Do It, We’ll Fund It

At the University of Richmond, we’ll even pay for your research! The Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research Committee awards four types of grants to undergraduate students each year to help defray the costs of completing research and disseminating the results to the scholarly community:

Research Grants: Up to $500 per individual to support student research and creative projects of all types.

Summer Fellowships: A total of $3,250 to cover living expenses so students can concentrate on research or creative projects during the summer months. The projects can be done on or off campus.

Travel Grants: Allow students to present results of their research at research-related workshops, seminars and conferences.

External Fellowships: Awards from other sources are available to qualified students for both undergraduate and graduate study.

Each year, we award more than $130,000 in grants to support student research projects. Students receive grants for travel to national professional conferences for presentations of their work, funds for specific research projects and summer fellowships. Students also receive support from research grants held by faculty.

Additionally, a 2004 grant of $900,000 from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has allowed undergraduate researchers in several science disciplines to further their research experience. Richmond was chosen from 198 public and private baccalaureate and master’s institutions as one of 42 colleges to receive this award. The funds are currently being used to hire additional faculty as well as develop new courses and research opportunities in cutting-edge fields, such as bioinformatics and mathematics.

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