May we interest you in some OCRA?

WHEREAS, Undergraduate Research is a valuable component of professional training in chemistry, and

WHEREAS, the Chemistry Discipline seeks to encourage students to become involved in the undergraduate research enterprise through faculty and University support and recognition, and

WHEREAS, the Chemistry Discipline feels that special recognition is deserved for those who excel in their undergraduate research experience, therefore

BE IT RESOLVED, that the Chemistry Discipline award "Outstanding Chemical Researcher Award" (OCRA) status to those graduating students who have satisfied the following criteria:

• The undergraduate researcher must have been involved in creative research at the advanced level. This work may have been done as paid labor (through scholarship, work study, institutional or grant funds), as free labor, or as part of a research-for-credit course. A faculty mentor must attest to the level of the work as being advanced beyond the junior level of undergraduate lab work and that the researcher contributed significantly to the work.
• The student's research activity must be documented by a research report written by the student, edited by the faculty mentor, and submitted through the mentor to a committee of the chemistry faculty for final approval no later than four weeks (28 days) before the first day of Final Exams of the semester of graduation. This report should follow the guidelines for a CHEM 443 research report found on the Chemistry discipline website.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the students receiving the OCRA designation will be expected to present their research results in a twenty-minute talk at a Friday afternoon OCRA symposium, organized by the chemistry discipline, no later than the last Friday of classes.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this Award process becomes effective in the semester beginning in January of 2003.