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Undergraduate Research Summer Institute (URSI)

Since 1986, the Undergraduate Research Summer Institute has shown hundreds of students the wonders of scientific discovery through high-level research with faculty supervisors. Each summer, students and faculty collaborate in an intensive ten-week program, designing and shaping their views of the world with exciting explorations, rigorous experiments, and critical analyses. Among the nation's oldest undergraduate scientific research programs, URSI continues to be powered by Vassar faculty and students. Weekly URSI events such as student presentations and social gatherings supported the rigorous daily work of each group. In the end the creative results displayed here at this Symposium are the culmination of the most wonderful experiences students and faculty can have, namely, working side-by-side on new ideas.

The faculty are very active in URSI. Each year more than 12 biology students have the opportunity to work with faculty on research projects. This rich research experience includes designing, performing, analyzing, and presenting experiments.

Visit it Undergraduate Research Summer Institute site for abstracts of past projects and more information about the institute.

URSI Project Posters

Do Plant-derived Beetle Chemical Defenses Work Against Parasitoids? Do Plant-derived Beetle Chemical Defenses Work Against Parasitoids?
Plant Genotype and Seasonal Effects on Egg Survivorship of the Imported Willow Leaf Beetle Plagiodera versicolora Plant Genotype and Seasonal Effects on Egg Survivorship of the Imported Willow Leaf Beetle Plagiodera versicolora
New Caledonia: Hotspot for DioecyNew Caledonia: Hotspot for Dioecy
Flowering Time, Competition, and Fecundity of an Annual Plant Flowering Time, Competition, and Fecundity of an Annual Plant