I've been involved in undergraduate research with LMU students since
1993. Our projects are investigations of the Sun-Earth Connection; in
particular, how the solar wind affects Earth's magnetosphere, and
subsequently, our lives. I have been fortunate enough to have received
external funding for
my work, and as a result, am able to employ up to four students each summer. Recently, one of my former students,
Dr. David Berube, has returned to LMU as a member of the Clinical Faculty, and we are now collaborators once more!
I strongly believe in the importance of undergraduate research for
several reasons:
- It greatly enhances classroom learning because students can see how concepts can be applied to the real world
- Its practice provides a path to independent thinking and intuition
- Research experience is highly regarded by graduate programs or industrial institutions
- At today's tuition rates, students deserve something more than
coursework. Research is one way of giving them "something extra"
The ability to do research as an undergraduate is a wonderful opportunity that LMU can offer you, and I hope you will make use of this opportunity. Here are links to papers my former students have published on their work at LMU, and four presentations given by my students, the first at the national meeting of Sigma Xi, the undergraduate research society, the second at the Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, the third at Posters on the Hill, an undergraduate research conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, and the fourth at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.
If you have any interest in this work, please contact me at jsanny@lmu.edu