UCUR 2022

The History of UCUR

In 1987, the University of North Carolina at Asheville conceived the idea to host a National Conference focused on undergraduate research. That first conference drew about 400 students from all over the country. In existence for over twenty years, the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) now regularly hosts more than 2,000 students who present their research through posters, oral presentations, visual arts, and performances.

In 2005 the Utah System of Higher Education approved a proposal from Joyce Kinkead (Utah State University) and John Francis (University of Utah) to organize a conference similar to NCUR, but on a state level. Taking NCUR as inspiration, a group of faculty and administrators responsible for undergraduate research at all institutions in Utah—public and private—came together in 2006 to organize the first annual Utah Conference on Undergraduate Research (UCUR) which was chaired by Joyce Kinkead (Utah State University) and Steve Roens and Jill Baeder (University of Utah) and hosted at the University of Utah’s Olpin Union Building on Friday, February 2, 2007.