Undergraduate Academic Affairs

May 21, 2009

Janice DeCosmo re-elected to Council on Undergraduate Research

Undergraduate Academic Affairs

Janice DeCosmo

Janice DeCosmo, associate dean in Undergraduate Academic Affairs and director of the Undergraduate Research Program, was recently re-elected to a three-year term as a Council on Undergraduate Research Councilor in the Undergraduate Reserach Program Directors Division.

UAA Associate Dean and Undergraduate Research Program Director Janice DeCosmo was recently re-elected a councilor in the Undergraduate Research Program Director Division of the national Council on Undergraduate Research.

As a councilor, DeComso will lead development of a handbook for self-study and program evaluation for undergraduate research programs. The handbook will also contain comparison data and undergraduate research program guidelines endorsed by the Undergraduate Research Program Directors Division.

The Division also connects new directors of undergraduate research programs to mentors and offers a consultancy program for institutions looking to establish an undergraduate research program.

DeCosmo is also an affiliate faculty member in the UW’s department of Earth and Space Sciences, having earned a PhD in Atmospheric Sciences in 1991 specializing in atmosphere-ocean interaction. She has taught science at all grade levels from kindergarten through university and more recently has focused on helping university faculty find ways to include undergraduates in their research and to integrate research into their teaching. Janice became director of URP in 2000. She is the campus representative and an elected councilor for the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR), and an elected member of the board of governors of the National Conferences on Undergraduate Research (NCUR). Her UW responsibilities include oversight of the Mary Gates Endowment for Students and providing leadership to the Center for Experiential Learning.