In last year’s report, on the occasion of the creation of a new Office of Undergraduate Research, we focused extensively on the topic of undergraduate research, providing a comprehensive overview of the relevant opportunities available on campus. The reader interested in a thorough treatment of this topic is encouraged to see the 1997-98 Annual Report to the Legislature from the Berkeley campus. This year, because many of these programs (such as the Haas Scholars Program, the McNair Scholars Program, the Biology Fellows Program, the Chevron Undergraduate Research Program, etc.) serve a fixed number of students each year, we have chosen to focus only on new programs for 1998-99 or on existing programs with new developments.

There was one overarching change in the landscape of undergraduate research at Berkeley last year. The Berkeley Undergraduate Research Consortium (BURC), a campus wide working group of faculty and staff who work with undergraduate research programs, was first convened by the Office of Undergraduate Research in Spring 1998. The mission of this group was to share knowledge and work together to make research an important part of the undergraduate experience at Berkeley. BURC brings together diverse programs, some centered in departments, some at the college-wide or campus-wide level. Some, like the McNair Scholars Program, are enrichment programs, geared specifically to encourage low-income, first generation college-goers to continue to Ph.D. programs. Others, like URAP, are designed to give as many students as possible a taste of advanced research. BURC encourages this diversity of approaches to research while allowing staff to work together on solving common problems and staging joint events, such as the Forum on Undergraduate Research Opportunities in Fall 1998. Over 400 students attended the evening forum and subsequently 1200 students signed up for the "researcher" listserver that was launched with this event.

In April 1999, BURC members worked together to stage the first Undergraduate Research Month. Print and web publicity was organized to draw attention to the many undergraduate research presentations scheduled for April. The departments of Molecular and Cell Biology, Physics, and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science all hosted poster sessions and/or symposia. The Berkeley Undergraduate Journal and McNair Scholars Journal held receptions to honor the student researchers they published. The Haas Scholars Program held a two-day conference and the Miller Scholars Program did a poster presentation coinciding with Cal Day. These and other Cal Day events allowed prospective students to speak with student researchers and see the products of undergraduate efforts.