Research Happens Here: Digging in to New Discoveries

It’s why we’re here.

Wonder. What if. Curiosity.

Since human beings started walking the earth, we’ve wondered what was out there, above there, and below there. We’ve questioned what would happen if we did this or if we did that, and we’ve pondered why some things happened and why other things didn’t.

We live in a world that changes day by day, maybe even minute by minute. Nothing stays the same. That’s because our curiosity has led us to do research. And through that process of questioning, probing, and testing, we gain knowledge we didn’t have before.

Here at IUP, we live for research. In our nearly 150 years as one of the state’s top institutions of higher learning, we have made it a priority. It’s what’s required of us as students of the world. Our research leads to innovation, which changes our communities, both locally and globally.

For proof of our dedication to research and reputation for it, in late 2021, IUP was designated a “High Research” doctoral university (R2) by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions. IUP is one of only five universities in the state–and one of 99 public universities in the nation–to earn this distinction.

“Research is important to advance our knowledge as a species in all disciplines,” says Hilliary Creely, dean of IUP’s School of Graduate Studies and Research.

“It’s how we grow. It’s how we solve real-world problems and help identify solutions that impact communities where we live and work. That is how we take information and translate it into useful information.”

As part of our rich tradition of research and learning, students and faculty work side by side to make discoveries every single day. It happens in the laboratories, in the classrooms, in the field, and in many other places. It obviously happens in the STEM fields but also in business, the humanities, social sciences, allied health, and nearly every other corner of the university.

“Often, when we say research, people immediately think about people in a lab with test tubes,” Creely says, “but it can be in every academic area. The definition of research, by the Council on Undergraduate Research, is original knowledge production in any academic discipline.”

At IUP, research is done not just for the sake of knowing. It’s great to discover something, but what makes it truly impactful is when that research is used to address a problem or an inefficiency in our communities.

“In high school, you usually do research by following the instructions in a textbook,”

Creely says. “But here, what we try to do is undertake research projects that are focused on solving real-world problems.”

At many universities across the country, students don’t often do research until they reach a graduate program. But at IUP, undergraduate students work with faculty and graduate students on many projects, and that research elevates their education and helps equip them for the workforce or graduate school.

IUP faculty come from all over the globe knowing they will have opportunities to further their expertise–so they can share it with others. Through our Research Institute, we apply for and are consistently awarded millions of dollars in grants every year, allowing our faculty members to follow leads, develop hypotheses, and test their theories.

In the 2020-21 school year, we were awarded almost $9 million for research projects that could lead students and faculty members to make breakthroughs in many subjects.

Many of our faculty have made impactful discoveries, whether they be in dinosaur fossils, safety measures, or mysteries of the mind. They have made IUP a name known around the world as a center of innovation and discovery, due in large part to our passion for research.

Our students benefit greatly from our faculty. Rather than only lecture in front of a classroom, our faculty members roll up their sleeves and dig in with their students, showing them what they have found rather than just telling them. They tell, but they also show.

It’s a two-way street. Students also make discoveries, living up to the promise passed on to them when they first came to IUP and stepped in the legendary Oak Grove with wide wonderment.

Through programs such as U-SOAR (Undergraduate Summer Opportunities for Applying Research), students can work one-on-one with a faculty member on a project of their choosing.

They learn things that they didn’t know before and, in some cases, that the world never knew before. IUP students have opportunities to share their research every year at events like the Scholars Forum, where they display posters and make presentations to reveal the fruits of their research labor, all guided by faculty members whose passion for research shows in the students they influence every single day.

Research is encouraged in every part of IUP. We take it seriously, and we do it well. Our students learn, our faculty members shine, and our world benefits—all from research.

It’s why we’re here.