Students found Rice’s first undergrad science review
Undergraduates wishing to share their research with the Rice community will have the opportunity to do so now that Catalyst, Rice’s first undergraduate science review, officially became a student organization at the Student Association meeting Monday. The magazine is currently accepting submissions and is planning on distributing its first, full-color, 40-page issue on April 13.
Catalyst will be a bi-annual research review of the sciences, mathematics, computer science and engineering at Rice. It will be divided into three categories: one with reviews by undergraduates on their own issues, one on research performed worldwide, and one with book reviews, interviews with famous scientists and historical timepieces. All articles will be written by undergraduates.
Catalyst Editor-in-Chief Ye Jin Kang said she got the idea for Catalyst when she came to Rice and saw the lack of a science review on campus.
“When I came to Rice I wanted a club where I could explore all the aspects of science,” Kang, a Will Rice College freshman said. “There wasn’t something aimed at fostering discussion and showcasing undergraduate research.”
Worldwide Research Executive Editor Yohan Moon said he thought Catalyst would fill a niche at Rice.
“President Leebron’s proposal of the Vision for the Second Century emphasized research at the university,” Moon, a Baker College freshman, said. “We thought there was something lacking in the undergraduate research community because there wasn’t a showcase of research done at Rice.”
Moon said the committee behind Catalyst looked at similar publications at Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University and decided to vary between specific articles and those that appeal to the general public.
Catalyst has several faculty advisors from various fields, the main one being biochemistry professor Dan Wagner. These advisors will help edit articles, give suggestions and advice and, ultimately, comprise the faculty review board.
Moon said Catalyst had secured funding from the President’s Programming Fund, the office of Dean of Undergraduates Robin Forman, the Dean of Natural Sciences and the Dean of Engineering. Kang said printing 1,000 issues would approximately amount to $3,500. Currently, they have secured about $2,500 of funding. Catalyst also applied for an Envision Grant. To fund the magazine in the future, Kang said she plans to send letters to companies to get them to submit ads. She said Catalyst had also applied for a student activities fund.
Kang said she would like to see Catalyst putting out issues with a specific focus after the magazine gets its first issue out, such as issues on global health or the brain. She said there were also plans to have a Web site from which all the articles would also be accessible.
“It would be nice to make it into an interactive forum discussion where we would have blog writers and have people post comments so it isn’t only a one-time magazine issue that comes out in April,” Kang said.
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