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Step 3: Research the researcher

Choosing your researcher

• Choose a few (3 to 5) potential faculty members that you might like to work with. In most cases, you can visit the website of the chosen department (from phase 2), and the department website will have a listing of the faculty, and a brief description of each person’s research. Alternatively, you may need to go the departmental office, and ask a secretary if such a listing exists. Or, you can visit the website of the graduate program(s) that are administered by a particular department, and these usually have brief descriptions of faculties’ research interests.
  
• Try to pick a few faculty members that seem to do interesting research. It is likely that not every faculty member will be able to take a new student into his or her lab. That’s why you need to pick a few different faculty members to ensure that at least one them will have an opening.

Which department is right for you?

Once you’ve settled upon an area of interest, it’s time to find out which department(s) at the U of M might be carrying out the type of research that would be a good fit for you. There are different ways to do this. Since the U of M is a big place, sometimes it’s helpful to narrow things down to one or two departments. For example, if you decide that your interests are in the area of Microbiology and your career goal is to go to Medical school, you should choose a department or two in the Medical school that would be appropriate. For example, in the Medical School there two departments that would seem to be a good fit. These would be the Department of Microbiology and the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, but there are other possibilities. You can find a listing of U of M departments on line (One Stop), you can use the U of M phone directory, or you can follow some of the links given below. You may want to talk to a faculty member such as your faculty mentor, the Director of Undergraduate Studies in your major department, or a course instructor for advice. They could help you shortcut this process.

Department lists of faculty:

Biochemistry, Molecular Biology & Biophysics
Ecology, Evolution & Behavior
Genetics, Cell Biology & Development
Plant Biology
Microbiology
Neuroscience

Academic Health Center - Research opportunities in the Medical School and related fields.

CFANS - The College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences also has research.

U Expertise database - Scroll down to “Expertise Database” to store your professional data.

research inside

Roadmap to Research

Video clips

CBS Directed Research
(Breeze presentation)

Life Sciences Summer Undergraduate Research Program (LSSURP)

Craniofacial Research Opportunities

Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)

McNair Scholars

National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR)

Undergraduate Symposium

Designing scientific posters
(Swarthmore College)

North Star STEM Alliance