Undergraduate Research

Engaged learning is a hallmark of a Weber State University education, and undergraduate research is an essential component. Undergraduate students conduct an array of scholarly and creative activities in collaboration with mentors for the purposes of examining, creating or sharing knowledge.
 
Together, faculty and students have tackled questions on topics ranging from DNA to dinosaurs, songbirds to sleep cycles, and poverty to pollution. National Science Foundation grants have helped fund research as far ranging as coal liquefaction and pharmacy fatigue. The biology and ecology of the Great Salt Lake have and continue to be the source of many scholarly studies, involving students in botany, microbiology, zoology, geosciences, geography, and physics. Students have presented original work at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and garnered national recognition for writing.
  
The strong commitment to undergraduate research, which spans five decades, was bolstered in 2004 when WSU established the Office of Undergraduate Research to provide funding, guidelines, and research standards for proposals and projects.
 
Eight times in nine years, a WSU undergraduate student has presented at the prestigious annual National Posters on the Hill event held on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. 

In 2014 the Office of Sponsored Projects administered $13.7 million in funded research and external projects for students and faculty. The funds, which come from federal, state and private sources, have doubled since 2004.