Erik Klemetti is an assistant professor in Geosciences at Denison University. He has been serving as a GeoCUR councilor since 2013.“Undergraduate research in my own experience is was launched me onto the path I know follow as a geoscientist. It seems only fitting that I would want to share that experience with my current students at a small liberal arts school like Denison as the ability to see how science gets done is central to anyone hoping to pursue a career in the field. This means that no matter what direction you might head — industry, outreach, teaching, research, academia — being able to experience how an idea becomes a research project becomes new knowledge is vital. CUR understands this and helps to promote the value of undergraduate research, both for the students themselves and for the faculty to mentor. Having an organization that can support faculty in developing undergraduate research programs in their own work or at a institution as a whole and an organization that will lobby for the financial support needed to keep these programs running in critical to have a successful backbone of undergraduate research across the nation.”
Council on Undergraduate Research - Geoscience Division 