In the fall of 2017, Dartmouth’s Office of Undergraduate Advising and Research (UGAR) put together a student committee to help promote undergraduate research on campus and think about ways to highlight student research here at Dartmouth. The College is fortunate to have a plethora of funding opportunities and undergraduate research programs to offer its students in every department, from film studies to biology, and each field has a thesis track where seniors focus on producing original research. Whereas at many other peer universities graduate students would handle much of the research assistant positions, due to Dartmouth’s focus on undergrads, many undergraduates get amazing exposure to research opportunities as there are simply fewer graduate students to fill available vacancies. All of this is to say that Dartmouth has a unique, large, and well-supported undergraduate research scene that deserves more highlighting and community-building, which is where the Dartmouth Undergraduate Research Association (DURA) steps in to help out.
While the group has existed under UGAR since 2017, recently the members decided it would be strategic to spin-out and apply for membership under the Council on Student Organizations banner for a variety of logistical and institutional reasons. While still retaining close links to UGAR, DURA now has the ability to plan events and establish a presence more easily, all in pursuit of the same mission: to create stronger ties between undergraduate researchers here at Dartmouth, highlight the amazing work that continues to be produced from dedicated and engaged students, and increase accessibility to these research opportunities for all students at Dartmouth.
Leadership 2019-2020:
Zach Cherian '20, President
Peter Kaiser '21, Vice President
Clayton Howard '21, Treasurer
Meghan Poth '20, Executive Council
Amanda Jiang '21, Executive Council
Elisabeth Sanson '20, Executive Council
Jessica Rosien '21, Executive Council
Nour Hayek '22, Executive Council
Chengzi Guo '22, Executive Council
Marc Novicoff '22, Executive Council
Zhanel Nugmanova '23, Executive Council
