Undergraduates will have an easier time finding research opportunities, thanks to the new Office of Undergraduate Research. The office will open in January, with Laurel Southard as its director. She is currently the Office of Undergraduate Biology's director of undergraduate research and outreach.

The Office of Undergraduate Research, to be located initially in Day Hall, will serve as a liaison for students seeking research positions and faculty members looking for undergraduate researchers, said Laura Brown, vice provost for undergraduate education and the John Wendell Anderson Professor of English. "We've heard faculty and students all over campus talking about the need for this type of office," she said.

One of the first challenges the office will take on is a census of how many undergraduates conduct research each term, in what disciplines, with which faculty, in what capacity and whether for credit or for pay, Southard said. "Undergraduates have been involved in research all along. But we haven't been able to tell the whole story," she said. "Freshmen have been knocking at the door, saying, 'Let us in, we want to do research.' We just have to figure out how to deliver that to them. There are so many great opportunities here for undergraduates to get involved in research with our faculty."

The office will also help the university recruit undergraduates, obtain grants and other types of financial support, expand avenues for undergraduate research across colleges and in the humanities and social sciences, train the next generation of faculty members and educate undergraduates about research possibilities, Brown said.

Underrepresented minority students are especially likely to benefit, and Southard will collaborate with an assistant vice provost for academic diversity initiatives who has yet to be named, Brown said. "It is widely understood that undergraduate research is a real catalyst for success for underrepresented minority students. They have all kinds of options in terms of mentor relationships with faculty and taking new directions in their academic and professional careers," she said.

In her current position, Southard is responsible for the direction of all undergraduate research activities and outreach programs in undergraduate biology, including the Cornell Hughes Scholars Program, the Honors Program in Biology and the Cornell Institute for Biology Teachers, among others. Her scientific interests include the molecular mechanism of cellular and viral protein targeting, assembly of enveloped viruses, cell biology, and the historical perspectives of infectious emerging diseases.

"Laurel is already fostering undergraduate research and has been for many years. She's been interacting with national organizations and with students across campus and across the country. She's absolutely the best connected person in terms of undergraduate research on campus and off campus that I can think of," Brown said.

With a B.S. in biological science and art from the University of New Mexico and a master's degree in parasitology from Tulane University, Southard joined Cornell in 1977 as a research support specialist. She conducted research on retroviruses with Volker Vogt, professor of biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, before leaving the lab bench in 1995 to direct the Cornell's Hughes Undergraduate Scholars Program. Since then she has worked in various capacities that support undergraduate research in the biological sciences. In her new position, she will continue to work with K-12 teachers to support science education.