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Over the past 20 years, the explosion of genomic data collection and the cloud computing revolution have made computational and data science research accessible to anyone with a web browser and an internet connection. However, students at institutions with limited resources have received relatively little exposure to curricula or professional development opportunities that lead to careers in genomic data science. To broaden participation in genomics research, the scientific community needs to support these programs in local education and research at underserved institutions (UIs). These include community colleges, historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and tribal colleges and universities that support ethnically, racially, and socioeconomically underrepresented students in the United States. We have formed the Genomic Data Science Community Network to support students, faculty, and their networks to identify opportunities and broaden access to genomic data science. These opportunities include expanding access to infrastructure and data, providing UI faculty development opportunities, strengthening collaborations among faculty, recognizing UI teaching and research excellence, fostering student awareness, developing modular and open-source resources, expanding course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs), building curriculum, supporting student professional development and research, and removing financial barriers through funding programs and collaborator support.
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This content will become publicly available on March 20, 2026
Research at Predominately Undergraduate Institutions Published Recently in The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, B, and C
The United States has a wide range of institutions of higher education, from two-year community colleges that focus primarily on job training to the research universities that train the next generation of Ph.D. scientists and produce a large share of knowledge. Some research universities are private, and others are public. Most states have a public flagship university or two, along with many more regional colleges where research has less emphasis and a slew of two-year community or technical colleges as well. The U.S. is also home to liberal arts colleges, which have no Ph.D. programs but where under- graduates benefit from small classes and intensive hands-on research experiences with the faculty. Most liberal arts colleges in the United States are private, although some states support a public liberal arts college as well. The nonflagship state and other private universities that do not have Ph.D. programs in chemistry and liberal arts colleges are collectively known as predominately undergraduate institutions or PUIs. PUIs play an important part in the United States scientific infrastructure, as they excel at providing the initial training of undergraduates, who learn the scientific method by hands-on research with their faculty mentors.
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- PAR ID:
- 10628107
- Publisher / Repository:
- ACS
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Journal of Physical Chemistry A
- Volume:
- 129
- Issue:
- 11
- ISSN:
- 1089-5639
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 2701 to 2704
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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