Newswise — The Executive Board of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) announced the appointment of Patricia “Pam” Ann Mabrouk, professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Northeastern University in Boston, as the next editor-in-chief of Scholarship and Practice of Undergraduate Research (SPUR), the academic journal of the organization. Beginning with volume 5 in fall 2021, Dr. Mabrouk will succeed James T. LaPlant (Valdosta State University), who has served as editor-in-chief since the journal’s debut in fall 2017.
Dr. Mabrouk earned her AB in chemistry and mathematics from Wellesley College and her PhD in physical chemistry from MIT. She held an NIH postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University before she joined Northeastern University, where her roles have included co-director of undergraduate research and associate dean for academic affairs and faculty affairs for the College of Science. Her research interests encompass pedagogy of undergraduate research, research ethics, active learning methods, and green chemistry. Dr. Mabrouk has mentored more than 100 undergraduates, including those who started their research journey as high school students, and coauthored 14 publications with her undergraduate mentees. She was an associate editor for the Analytical Sciences Digital Library and an Editorial Board member for the Journal of Excellence in College Teaching. For SPUR, she has served as the divisional editor for chemistry and editor of the SPUR volume 4 content on the theme “Undergraduate Research during Times of Disruption.”
Said Iain Crawford (University of Delaware), chair of the search committee and a CUR past president, “The search committee was extremely impressed with all the finalists for the editor-in-chief position. Pam Mabrouk stood out for her longstanding commitment to undergraduate research, wide-ranging editorial experience, and vision for new ways in which SPUR can more deeply support CUR’s strategic goals.”
Said Lindsay Currie, CUR’s executive officer, “Dr. Mabrouk’s commitment to research ethics, continuing professional development for undergraduate researchers and their mentors that includes collaborative publication, and background in academic publishing will assist in strengthening SPUR as an invaluable resource for the many communities interested in the advancement of undergraduate research.”
Said Dr. Mabrouk, “I am deeply honored to have the opportunity to lead CUR’s flagship journal, capitalizing on the strong foundation that founding Editor-in-Chief James LaPlant and the Editorial Board have established and making SPUR the premier multidisciplinary scholarly journal for the undergraduate research community.”
###
Scholarship and Practice of Undergraduate Research publishes scholarly work that examines effective practices and novel approaches, explores pedagogical models, and highlights the results of assessment of undergraduate research. As a peer-reviewed publication of the Council on Undergraduate Research, the journal provides useful and inspiring information that increases understanding of undergraduate student-faculty engagement in research, scholarship, and creative work in all disciplines and at all types of higher education institutions in the United States and abroad.
The Council on Undergraduate Research supports faculty development for high-quality undergraduate student-faculty collaborative research and scholarship. More than 700 institutions and nearly 13,000 individuals belong to CUR. CUR believes that the best way to capture student interest and create enthusiasm for a discipline is through research in close collaboration with faculty members.