Undergraduate Research

Biotechnology students engage in significant research as an important part of their degree program. Students and faculty advisors work to help identify research opportunities in the student's area of interests.    The experience our students have working in a lab on a significant research project gives them a perspective and competitive advantage that simply cannot be found in the classroom.

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Finding a Research Mentor

ABT 201 is a seminar style course with researchers from all over campus visiting the classroom and discussing their ongoing research with ABT students.  Students learn about opportunities to work on campus with researchers involved in biotechnology and in companies, government labs and other universities.

Writing your Proposal

Title page of research proposalABT 301 is designed to ensure the completion of your research proposal.  Once you have chosen a research mentor and a project, you will complete your research proposal in a our Writing & Presentations for the Life Sciences course.  You, with the assistance of your mentor and the course instructor, will write and complete your proposal.  Since communicating your ideas to the scientific community is also important, you will hone your oral presentation skills by giving a practice and formal presentation during the semester.

395/399 Student Presentations

Student Publications

Over the years, Ag and Medical Biotech students have been successfully contributing authors to many scientific journals.  

Your Research Project

Research mentor and student reviewing lab notebook.ABT 395 is not a regular classroom course.  You don't go to lecture three times a week and then take an exam.  Instead, you go to your research lab and spend your time running your experiments, collecting data, discussing your experiments with your mentor and compiling your results. These research experiences are at least a semester long with student's earning a minimum of 3 credit hours.  After the completion of your project, you will present your results to the ABT community during our student speaker symposium. 

Your research experience can also be fulfilled by completing an internship, ABT 399, in which  your research project is completed off campus. The requirements are the same as ABT 395 with the addition of the completion of a learning contract prior to the start of your internship.  Students have completed internships at Pioneer, Dow AgSciences, NIH and with other companies or research agencies.

Additional Research

ABT 396 is designed to enhance and further a student's experience in the scientific process.  Registration for one to four credit hours is allowed per semester and can be repeated for a maximum of six credits.  An independent learning contract is required for registration in the course.   

The Glenn B. Collins Research Award

The Glenn B. Collins Undergraduate Research Achievement Award is presented every semester to an Ag and Medical Biotech student by the program faculty in recognition of a stellar oral presentation, an outstanding independent study and dedicated research performance.  The recipients of this award exemplify the transformative potential of undergraduate research experiences and reflect a lasting legacy of Dr. Collins' contribution to the Agricultural and Medical Biotechnology program at the University of Kentucky.

Internships

Agricultural and Medical Biotechnology students have participated in summer internships as a ABT 399 project or to gain more research experience in their area of interest. 

Undergraduate Research Funding

Opportunities to Present your Research

Your research mentor may recommend undergraduate student presentations opportunities at the appropiate professional meetings in your research field.  Other opportunities include:

ABT student labeling tubes in the lab.
ABT student presenting his results at a poster competition.
ABT student preparing ground wheat samples in the lab.