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Jeff Osborn receives 2016 CUR Fellows Award for excellence in undergrad research

The Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) announced today that Jeff Osborn, dean of TCNJ’s School of Science, is one of two recipients of the 2016 CUR Fellows Award.

The CUR Fellows Award recognizes individuals who excel in teaching, scholarship, and mentoring of undergraduate students, and who provide leadership in the area of undergraduate research. The biennial awards are presented to two individuals who have developed nationally respected research programs involving undergraduate students. Each CUR Fellow’s institution is also awarded a student research fellowship to support undergraduate research at their institution.

Osborn shares the honor with Jill Singer, professor and director of the Office of Undergraduate Research at SUNY–Buffalo State.

CUR Executive Officer Elizabeth Ambos cited that the fellows’ achievements “model solutions to one of higher education’s deepest challenges: how to increase student, faculty, and institutional success, and build the quality of degrees our students receive.”

For more than 30 years, Osborn, a plant biologist, has been deeply invested in broadening participation of all students and faculty in undergraduate research, with a focus on access and inclusion. He is active in both National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health grant-funded programs to expand undergraduate research programs and build research infrastructure capacity. His leadership at TCNJ has transformed the learning environment: weaving mentoring into the tenure and promotion process, attracting external funds, and creating an institutional culture centered around undergraduate research.

“I am incredibly honored and humbled to receive the award and feel so privileged to be a member of the TCNJ community,” says Osborn.

This award comes on the heels of CUR’s October announcement that TCNJ would receive the council’s first-ever AURA—Campus-wide Award for Undergraduate Research Accomplishment—recognizing institutions that have devised exemplary programs providing high-quality research experiences to undergraduates.

 

ABOUT CUR

The Council on Undergraduate Research supports faculty and student development for high-quality undergraduate student-faculty collaborative research, scholarship, and creative activities. More than 700 institutions and over 10,000 individuals belong to CUR. CUR believes that the best way to capture student interest and create enthusiasm for a discipline is through research in close collaboration with faculty members.


Emily W. Dodd ’03

 

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