College of Science & Health (CSH)

Dean's Distinguished Fellowship Policies

Philosophy. The Summer Research Fellowship program is intended to foster collaborative research between an undergraduate student and their faculty mentor. Applications covering a diversity of research from all College of Science and Health (CSH) programs are welcome. This program encourages students to participate in a range of scientific and other scholarly experiences, including project design and implementation, analysis and summary of results, and professional communication of findings. It is expected that the faculty mentor will help structure and actively participate in all phases of the research project while allowing the student to assume a suitable level of independence and responsibility.

Eligibility. The student must be a declared major in a College of Science and Health program and the faculty mentor must be from a College of Science and Health program. In addition, the student must be in good academic standing, have successfully completed 30 credit hours of coursework at UWL. Applicants who have not previously received a CSH summer fellowship will be given first consideration. Past fellowship recipients or students who have only one semester of coursework remaining will be considered as resources allow.

GPA Recommendation.  There is no minimum GPA. However, GPA may be used in the award decision process.

Amount of award. $5,500 for each fellowship plus up to $500 for supplies, if needed. Details of award payment will be provided in the award letter.

Applying for Other Funding. Students are permitted to apply for additional funding for equipment and supplies to support their research projects. Funding may be obtained from UW-L or non-UW-L sources. However, upon acceptance of this fellowship, students will not be eligible to receive additional salary support from other UW-L sources.

Enrollment for credit. Students must enroll for a minimum of one credit of research (e.g., BIO 499, CHM 499, CS 499, GEO/ESC 490, MIC 499, MTH 499, NMT 499, HED 495, ESS 324 or PHY 498). After award decisions are announced, students will be notified and given 2 weeks to enroll in the course. Enrollment will begin in Spring of the year of award acceptance and will end at the end of the corresponding summer. Enrollment is required for payment of the fellowship award on June 1.

So that they may focus on their research projects, students should not take other summer courses while working on their fellowship project, which generally begins in mid-June. Summer Session I courses are permitted as there is minimal overlap. Fellowship recipients are strongly discouraged from working during the summer. This includes participating in an internship/preceptorship. However, if a student wishes to work part time outside of the fellowship time commitment or is involved with a part time internship/preceptorship, the student must discuss and obtain approval from their mentor prior to submitting the application.

Expected time commitment. Students will be expected to work on their projects at least 30 hours per week over a 10-week period during the summer. Students are expected to be on campus for the majority of the 10-week period. The student’s faculty mentor and the summer program coordinators must be notified if the student will not be present for any length of time during the 10-week period.

Communication of results. With assistance from the faculty mentor, students are expected to disseminate their results by preparing (1) a poster presentation at the CSH Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium (2) an oral or poster presentation for the annual spring UWL Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creativity and (3) a concisely written summary report. Additional presentations may also be delivered at other off-campus forums, e.g., NCUR, a student research conference or a professional conference. The summary report may be submitted for possible publication in the UWL Journal of Undergraduate Research or in a professional journal. Timely documentation of these presentations and reports to the Fellowship Committee by faculty mentors will be used in determining future fellowship awards.

Ongoing research. One of the intents of the fellowship program is to broaden participation in research activities by undergraduates. Therefore, preference may be given to students who are proposing new projects and who have not yet received research funding.

Evaluating applications. A faculty committee, appointed by the Dean of the College of Science and Health, will evaluate applications. The Dean will make final determinations.

Relevant dates. Applications must be submitted as a single PDF document to the Canvas CSH Grants Page by 4:00 PM the second Friday in February. Awards will be announced by the fourth week in March.

Proposal topics. Proposals may be for traditional laboratory or field projects. Proposals that involve scholarly investigation of topics theoretical in nature are also encouraged. For example, students may propose to study a topic in pure mathematics or theoretical computer science that would not normally be covered in the traditional undergraduate curriculum. In such cases, students would be expected to provide evidence of their studies via a poster presentation, an expository article, or a literature review (other venues are possible).

Number of awards per faculty mentor. The number of student fellowships awarded per faculty mentor will be considered by the Fellowship Committee. However, it is possible for one faculty mentor to sponsor more than one student fellow.

Splitting fellowship awards. Fellowships are intended to fully fund each student, reducing the extent to which students must find additional summer employment. Therefore, partial fellowships will not be awarded.

Weekly summer meetings. Students must plan on meeting regularly during the summer so that they can informally share their research experiences, listen to faculty seminars, etc. If a meeting must be missed, students must notify their faculty mentor and the summer program coordinators. Faculty members are also expected to attend these meetings.

Proposal readability. The fellowship review committee will include members who are not familiar with your research topic. Your proposal must be written for a general audience. Also, please use font sizes no smaller than 10 point in preparing your application.

Faculty reference letters. Reference letters must focus on student qualifications and potential for research, and should not include an explanation of the proposed research. Faculty should also address how they will supervise the student if the student will be off-site for the majority of the summer.

Questions? For additional information, contact the Dean’s Office at csh@uwlax.edu