SURF |  Searching for a Research Mentor

If you are searching for a research mentor at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine (UC COM) and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC), visit us at: http://med.research.uc.edu/GraduateEd/GraduatePrograms.aspx  and read about our Graduate Program faculty and their research.   Faculty members in our PhD Programs run state of the art laboratories at UC COM and at CCHMC, and they are experts in mentoring undergraduate and graduate research students.

If you are an undergraduate looking for research experience, you can search our website for the many opportunities available, including the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) programs at UC COM and at CCHMC.  We recommend that you identify investigators whose work interests you, then contact them to discuss their research and to see if they would allow you to work on a project in their lab, either as a volunteer, a student worker, or as a SURF fellow.  You might prepare for a discussion with one of our investigators by reading some of their recently published work; citations are generally included on each faculty member’s website.

If you are applying for one of our SURF programs, you will be required to list at least one faculty member as a potential mentor.  If you are accepted into SURF, we will try to match you with the one of the faculty members on your list, and if they are not available, we will search for people doing similar work.

Any investigator at UC COM or CCHMC is a potential mentor and can be listed on your application.  Your list will give us a good idea of what kind of researcher you want to work with.  If you take it a bit further, and contact faculty members personally, you will learn more about the research going on in their labs.  Additionally, by giving them an opportunity to get to know you a little bit, you will increase your potential for being placed. 

Research experience will help you prepare for graduate school or for a career in research.  You might perform research in order to meet a Co-op requirement, work for pay, or work for academic credit in labs at UC COM and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.  Student Positions for Co-op, Student Worker, and Work Study Student in COM Departments are posted on the UC Job Opportunities website at https://www.jobsatuc.com but students are encouraged to contact faculty directly to initiate discussion of potential research positions.

Here are some places where you can find investigators at the UC College of Medicine (UCCOM) and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) online:

• COM Graduate Program list for faculty in our PhD programs: http://med.research.uc.edu/GraduateEd/GraduatePrograms.aspx 
  Each Program has a list of Faculty with contact information and research description.  You may notice that our FLEX graduate program does not offer a specific list of faculty, because Flex students work with faculty in any PhD program at UC COM and CCHMC.
• COM Department list: http://med.uc.edu/departments.aspx  (CCHMC faculty are listed under the COM Department  of Pediatrics)
• Faculty member’s name: http://ucdirectory.uc.edu
• NIH Reporter search engine at: http://projectreporter.nih.gov/reporter.cfm helps you identify faculty with projects funded by the NIH.  Include the term “Cincinnati” in the box labeled “Organization” to find investigators at UC COM and CCHMC.
• Search Google, Bing etc (include “Cincinnati” among your search terms)