By Dan Nonte, University Relations
Dr. Mary L. Crowe
Dr. Mary L. Crowe has been appointed director of the Office of Undergraduate Research at UNCG.
She had been director of the Center for Undergraduate Research and associate professor in the Department of Biology at Xavier University of Louisiana since 2004. Between 1994 and 2004, she was a biology professor at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, S.C.
“When I was an undergraduate, I did research with a faculty member and it transformed my life,” she says. She has worked throughout her career to give similar opportunities to her own students.
In her new post, Crowe will recruit students and faculty to conduct research; seek external funding; and promote interdisciplinary research, minority participation and entrepreneurial projects.
“We are delighted to have Dr. Crowe joining us at UNCG,” said Dr. Rosemary Wander, associate provost for research and public/private sector partnerships. “She brings the skill and experience necessary to make undergraduate research a signature program at UNCG.”
She was part of a team at Tulane and Xavier universities that received last year a $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to prepare minority students for work in the field of international health. The Council of Undergraduate Research named her volunteer of the year in 2005.
In 2004, she received a $5,000 grant to develop a network of undergraduate research directors. While at Coastal Carolina, Crowe and a co-primary investigator received grants of almost $1 million from the National Science Foundation to encourage girls and women to study science and math.
Crowe earned a bachelor’s degree in biology at Eureka College in Illinois, and a master’s degree and doctorate, also in biology, at Northern Illinois University. Her recent research has focused on the thermal ecology of fiddler crabs.
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, she was a visiting scholar from October through December at the Center for Research and Learning at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
