ONNECTICUT
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A REGIONAL, PUBLIC UNIVERSITY Southern
also can provide undergraduate students with opportunities to pursue graduate-level research. “We offer the kinds of research experiences here that you could get at UConn or Yale, but we do that in a small department environment with personalized attention,” says Elliott Horch, chairman of the Department of Physics. (There’s more on the worldclass research being conducted by his students on page 16.) To qualify as R2 — meaning high research spending and doctorate production — a university must award at least 20 research doctorates yearly and spend $5 million annually on research. In fiscal year 2023, Southern exceeded both benchmarks, awarding 29 doctorates and totaling $8,007,000 in research expenditures. A significant portion of Southern’s research and development expenses come from institutional investments, but research is also supported by federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the departments of Defense, Agriculture, Energy, and Education.
As these varied collaborations would suggest, research at Southern spans disciplines — benefiting campus and the community-at-large. The university is home to numerous Centers of Excellence that promote scholarship and real-world applications. These include: • Center of Excellence on Autism Spectrum Disorders • Center for Educational and Assistive Technology • CSCU Center for Nanotechnology (CNT) • Center for Research on Interface Structures and Phenomena (CRISP) • The Werth Center for Coastal and Marine Studies • Center for Excellence in Mathematics and the Sciences • Research Center on Values in Emerging Science and Technology • SCSU Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning For many students, these centers are a gateway to research experience. For example, the Werth Endowed
Industry Academic Fellowship (IAF) program, funded by the Werth Family Foundation and housed in the CNT, provides team-based research in nano and quantum technologies. It’s just one of numerous programs offering student stipends, in this case, up to $5,000 for the summer. From physics and education to business and social work, students are asking critical questions — and learning to find the answers. Among those featured in the pages ahead: two transfer students turned astronomers, a team teaching Chinese to high schoolers through a National Security Agency–funded program, and a business student from Germany studying the appeal of green bonds. Together, they reflect what sets Southern apart: a commitment to hands-on, student-driven research that prepares learners to tackle real-world challenges — here in Connecticut and beyond. Catherine Corto-Mergins, DSW ’25, presenting her doctoral research; collaborating on research with Save the Sound; Professor Peter Latchman (center) oversees research on central blood pressure reading; the Communication Disorders Lab is a source of services, training, and research; students check a camera to study wildlife on campus; and research cuts across all disciplines, including STEM.
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