Research and Field Work in the Natural Sciences

Maryville College is an institutional member of the Council on Undergraduate Research. Through several major research facilities, arrangements are made for superior students to participate in state-of-the-art scientific investigations and experience a professional research environment. The National Science Foundation supports a large number of summer undergraduate research programs, and the Science and Engineering Research Semester is open to qualified students in biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, and physics. Those accepted into these programs spend a summer, or even a semester at one of several research universities or national laboratories such as Argonne, Brookhaven, Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, or Pacific Northwest working under the supervision of a scientist or engineer.

At the Savannah River Ecological Station at Aiken, South Carolina, summer programs are offered for the student interested in environmental research or computer modeling systems. For the exceptional biology major, intensive sessions in botany, marine ecology, developmental biology, invertebrate zoology, and neurophysiology are available at the Marine Biological Laboratories of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts and the Whitney Marine Lab in Florida.

Closer to the College campus, faculty regularly have research opportunities open to student participation. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory also affords Maryville students the chance to participate in a variety of short-term and summer research and study programs. The nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Cherokee National Forest provide students with a rich resource for ecological and other field studies.