Joy JuedesChristopher Kim, senior associate dean of academic programs and faculty development at Chapman University’s Schmid College of Science and Technology, has been honored for mentoring undergraduate students in their research work.
Kim will be given the Geosciences Faculty Mentor Award by the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) at the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting in October.
The CUR’s Geosciences Division gives the award to someone who is a “role model for productive and transformative student-faculty mentoring relationships and for maintaining a sustained and innovative approach to the enterprise of undergraduate research.”
Kim, an environmental geochemist, has mentored more than 100 undergraduate, community college, post-baccalaureate and high school students in his lab in almost 20 years at Chapman. He was director of Chapman’s Office of Undergraduate Research — now the Center for Undergraduate Excellence — from 2011 to 2015. While there, he ramped up undergraduate student research and creative activities, including launching the summer undergraduate research fellowship (SURF) program.
“The transformative impact of undergraduate research has been a constant throughout my academic career,” Kim said.
Dozens of those students have presented research at conferences, co-authored papers and been accepted to Ph.D. programs, he said.
Kim also directs the SURFEES program, a National Science Foundation-funded summer research fellowship for community college students, which this year celebrated its 10th anniversary and has facilitated research experiences for over 100 fellows.
