By George
Lewis
About 175 students, faculty
and staff have volunteered to act as guides and room monitors for the 2,500 undergraduates
and their mentors during the National Conference on
Undergraduate Research.
|
March
9, 2001 – (Lexington, Ky.) – Normally, few students are on campus during Spring Break. But this
year, from March 15-17, some 2,500 students and their mentors from universities and
colleges across the nation will participate in the National
Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), thought to be the largest conference ever
to be held at UK. Students in all academic disciplines representing 45 states and more
than 200 institutions will present papers and poster-board displays and demonstrate their
talents in art, music, theater and dance. Coordinating
a conference of such magnitude means special logistical challenges for Kathy McKinley, UK
Conferences and Institutes, and Phil Kraemer, Dean of Undergraduate Studies. Among their
many tasks: ensure that participants are transported in a timely fashion to and from their
hotel and motel rooms, campus and the airport each day. Presentation scheduling presented
another formidable task. The presentations and other goings-on will occupy the Student
Center, Singletary Center for the Arts, the gallery of the Fine Arts Building and the
entire Classroom Building, .
McKinley expressed her gratitude to the approximately 175
students, faculty and staff who have volunteered to help in registration and act as guides
and room monitors. She said more volunteers are needed. McKinley praised the Lexington
Convention and Visitors Bureau for contributing maps and other information that will be
useful to participants.
The conference will include noted speakers from the
sciences and humanities, including two from UK and one closely affiliated with the
university: Wendell Berry, Kentucky poet, author and farmer; Gail Robinson, influential
opera performer and contributor and holder of the Endowed Chair for Vocal Performance at
the University of Kentucky; Phillip Sharp, professor of biology at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize; and Gerald Smith, UK professor
of history, a contributing editor in the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project based at
Stanford University.
The theme of "Science and the Human Spirit" is
meant to inspire the investigation of the roles humanity has assigned, in its pursuit of
goals and aspirations, to computers, interactive video and the Internet.
For more information, or to volunteer,
see http://www.ncur2001.uky.edu/.
|
