Giving Students Real-world Experience

Funded by a grant, Lydia Tackett (Professor, Geosciences) conducts research with the help of paid undergraduates contributing to her lab. She met Sam Marolt when he started working in her lab his freshman year. Normally, those positions are reserved for older students. The first project Sam worked on with Lydia was a collection of fossils. “I realized he wasn’t just looking at fossils; he was contributing to the intellectual part of the research right away,” Lydia remembers. Sam’s work led to his own research being prepared for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

Lydia Tackett, Professor, Geosciences