Research Environments

Graduate students play an integral role in the research work of Iowa State University faculty. For this reason and also because research is an important part of the graduate experience, Iowa State provides extensive support for the members of its graduate student body. Many services, e.g. counseling and mentoring, are provided by the Graduate College.

Iowa State has 118 graduate programs with a total enrollment of about 4,600 students. In 2004, 1,800 graduate students held research assistantships and almost 700 were on teaching assistantships. Over 2,500 graduate students receive 50% or more of their tuition paid through Iowa State. In addition,to departmentally-based graduate programs there are 22 interdepartmental graduate programs on campus that enroll almost 900 students as well as 17 graduate certificate programs that enroll over 100 students.

Faculty members are encouraged to support graduate students with sponsored funding and, as major professors, guide them through their degree programs. To further enhance the graduate experience, the Preparing Future Faculty Program was initiated in 2002. This program supplements graduate preparation by offering new teaching, mentoring and learning opportunities to postdoctoral fellows, Ph.D. students and master's students, thus providing them with additional credentials for a competitive academic job market. Participants also learn about research ethics and the difference between government and industry research funding, all of which helps them in their own research projects as well as in their collaborative projects with faculty members.

Many centers and institutes on campus also provide employment and excellent experience for graduate students. For instance, the Center for Transportation Research and Education employs 65 graduate research assistants who work closely with faculty members in various departments. This provides them with valuable work experience that often leads to additional career opportunities.

Likewise, training grants on campus offer valuable experience for graduate students, such as the Computational Molecular Biology (CMB) Training Group that was established through an NSF IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship) award. This group is composed of investigators with diverse areas of expertise, including evolutionary, molecular and structural biology, computer science, mathematics and statistics. The goal of the CMB Training Group is to provide graduate and postdoctoral students with the necessary skills to explore biological questions from a systems-wide perspective, integrating genome sequencing efforts and recent advances in molecular genetics.

Graduate students also have many on- and off-campus opportunities to participate in internship programs, and a concerted effort is made to promote this activity. For example, the Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship provides opportunities through its Reiman Internship Program. The College of Engineering works closely with its students to ensure that all students have relevant engineering work-related experience prior to graduation. A significant number of these internships involve graduate students in research projects that benefit both the companies sponsoring the work and the students’ academic careers.

Iowa State emphasizes involvement of graduate students in faculty research. Graduate students are the future of the academy, government, and industry–they will push the frontiers of new knowledge for many years to come. For this reason, Iowa State strives to provide a supportive environment for its graduate students who are involved in faculty research.

Undergraduate students become involved in faculty research in a number of ways. In addition to formal programs, many undergraduate students arrange research experiences independently through individual faculty or through their departments.

Iowa State University’s Undergraduate Research Assistantship (URA) Program encourages outstanding juniors and seniors to pursue graduate study by offering them hands-on experience in a formal research environment. Participation in the URA Program assists students in making career decisions and in attaining information about graduate education and fellowships. Faculty members of Iowa State also benefit from working closely with talented undergraduates. Since 1987, the URA program has continued to help students develop technical and manipulative skills as well as foster originality, imagination, judgment, and patience–the traits of an independent scholar.

Students in the freshman honors program may choose to participate in the Mentor Program during the spring semester. The Mentor Program introduces students to research and the research process and matches them with faculty members doing research in an area of interest to the students. Students spend three to six hours a week on the research project and receive one or two credits of Honors independent study. As a result of this introduction to research, some students have continued to work with the professor’s research project and have become a regular part of the research team. The University Honors Program believes this program benefits both Iowa State faculty and the honors students by enabling freshman to become involved in the pursuit of knowledge and scholarship outside of the typical classroom experience.

Full honors students are required undertake a research project to complete their honors program of study. University Honors Research Grants of up to $500, are available through a competitive grant process to help cover project expenses.

REUs with NSF for many departments

Many departments funded through NSF have sought and obtained REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) supplements. In most cases undergraduate students from Iowa State as well as from other universities work with researchers on NSF funded projects. Among the departments hosting REU students are physics, chemistry, mathematics, molecular biology, most engineering departments, and computer science.