Kerry Karukstis, immediate past president of the Council on Undergraduate Research, said that in terms of its undergraduate research program, Harvey Mudd College is “the envy and aspiration of many institutions.” Though half the age of many of its peers, HMC has managed to achieve an outstanding undergraduate research enterprise. Karukstis’ remarks—“Taking Undergraduate Research from Good to GREAT: Pivotal Junctures in the Undergraduate Research Enterprise”—were a highlight of HMC’s annual Presentation Days, a time each year when classes are cancelled and the college celebrates more than 100 research presentations, as well as Clinic projects, given by half of the student body. Karukstis, a chemistry faculty member since 1984 who has collaborated with 95 HMC student researchers, described the qualities of undergraduate research programs that lead to their success and outlined key strategies that have led to the success of HMC’s program.

Strong Foundation
HMC began with a core group of individuals, led by founding President Joseph Platt. He searched for outstanding teachers with continued interest in research and scholarship, among them Graydon Bell (physics), William Sly (chemistry) and Robert James (mathematics). “Because of their dedication to research with students, our undergraduate research program was launched,” Karukstis said.

Mission-Aligned
The program is also successful because it is aligned to our mission statement, she said. “We’ve focused on the student. The research is collaborative student/faculty work. We’ve incorporated it into our curriculum. We’ve recognized what is important is that it provides deep disciplinary learning beyond what you can get in the traditional classroom.”

Staying the Course
We’ve learned to take our time, start small and stay the course. The success of HMC’s undergraduate research program is due to a series of small steps. We have benefitted from serendipitous moments that provided us with research facilities far beyond what we could afford and far beyond what we needed at the time. The first science center on campus, now the Jacobs building, was the result of free land, collateral and funding from the Claremont Consortium; the then Claremont Graduate School assisted with the construction of the Keck wing and, for several years, used the facilities for their mathematics and art departments. The Beckman Foundation donated the monies to construct the basement level under Olin, including the Beckman Auditorium, so that the Olin building could be connected to the rest of the academic buildings.

Key Funding
Over time, we developed the visibility to obtain NSF and NIH funding. In 1959, HMC received its first funding from NSF, and the next year, the Department of Chemistry received funding to begin a summer research program, which continues today and has expanded to other departments. As the NSF programs grew and support for undergraduate research flourished, HMC received more support for its faculty and students.

Curriculum-based Research
HMC has built research into the curriculum. Chemistry Professor Art Campbell put HMC on the map with his chem study films (an NSF project) that were seen by students nationwide. Over the years, our integration of research and education went hand in hand. We were recognized in 1998, with one of 10 Awards from the National Science Foundation for the Integration of Research and Education (AIRE), a highly coveted prize.

Karukstis challenged the college to continue to think about the link between research and education. She said HMC should prepare to capitalize on the movement to fund more interdisciplinary and international research and should consider expanding summer research opportunities in the Humanities, Social Sciences and the Arts. Including undergrads in transformative research, exploring community-based research and continuing to build the college’s research endowment were other suggested areas for future work.