Dr Karen Mock, Assistant Professor in the Department of Wildland Resources, has been actively involved in mentoring undergraduate researchers since her arrival in 2000.  Her laboratory focuses on conservation genetics, and she regularly encourages undergraduate students to gain experience there, providing them training as volunteers and then hiring them as technicians.  This kind of experience is unusual and highly valuable for undergraduates, giving them insight about the generation of genetic data for a variety of applications.  Karen has mentored 7 undergraduate students in her laboratory for a period of more than 6 months each, in addition to a recent student just starting in the lab.   Of these students, five have entered graduate school in a field related to the molecular lab experience they obtained, one was a co-author on a paper in a prestigious journal (Molecular Ecology), one has a professional job with a natural resources agency, and two are undergraduate students actively working in the lab. 

In addition, Karen has actively worked to recruit undergraduate students to USU from the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon.  Karen has worked on research projects with this Tribe for several years.  As a result, Karen’s lab hosted a Tribal member full time for a week in her laboratory in 2007.  The experience of this Tribal member has also led to current discussions between Karen and Tribal representatives about the establishment of a program for small cohorts of high school students to become CNR undergraduates. 

Recently, Karen has been working closely with Richie Gardener and has involved him in several projects in her laboratory.  Richie has been involved in the field, greenhouse, and laboratory components of these projects, even supervising crews of graduate students in the field.  Richie has assembled and presented a poster on some of this work, and has written and submitted successful grant applications (CNR, URCO) for a study of genetic diversity in aspen.  This experience will be an important segue into graduate research for Richie.

Karen has a strong commitment to mentoring undergraduate students with an interest in research and she is highly deserving of the recognition this award will bring.