The Week in UR – February 17, 2026

The Week in UR is coming to you mid-week this week, but there’s good reason for that. This week is a particularly busy Week in UR, and now is the perfect time for some key updates and reminders.

Most importantly, the deadline for students to submit abstracts to present their research at TSC’s Seventh Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium is TOMORROW February 18! This will be the final call for symposium abstract submissions, so if you’re interested in presenting, you’ve got just over 24 hours to get your abstract submitted. Anyone who has carried out any kind of research at TSC over the past two years is welcome, and encouraged, to submit an abstract. Additional information about TSC’s UR symposium, including presentation formats, research project requirements, and resources to help with writing an abstract can be found, as always, at our website: www.tsc.fl.edu/research.

Another item to add to the final call category is the tour of the Mag Lab happening this Friday, February 20, from 2:30 to 5:00. This event is organized by the student leaders of OSPUR, our undergraduate research student organization. Once again, this is an exceptional opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, or Mag Lab, as it’s known around Tallahassee, a U.S. national laboratory and the world’s largest and highest-powered magnet laboratory, located just three miles from TSC’s campus. But registration is required, and registration will close tomorrow, February 18, at 12:00 noon. So if you’re interested in attending, make sure to get your registration form submitted stat. Here’s that link again: TSC Day at the Mag Lab – Fill out form

And about those student leaders of OSPUR…I just have to brag on them. This past weekend, three of our OSPUR officers — President Moises Chacon, Vice President Sunny Thomas, and Secretary Mikayli Ingram — traveled with yours truly to the Florida Undergraduate Research Leadership Summit, an annual conference of undergraduate research student leaders in Florida. The event was held at Florida International University, in Miami, so it was quite a commitment to get there! But it was a fantastic conference filled with loads of ideas about student leadership of undergraduate research programming. And the conference was organized entirely by UR student leaders, for UR student leaders. Needless to say, it was incredibly impressive. Our OSPUR officers came away with tons of ideas about how to grow research opportunities for TSC students, and I can’t wait to see what they get up to next. On the way home, we had the opportunity to visit the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum at the Big Cypress Seminole Reservation, where Mikayli Ingram educated us about Seminole history, which just happens to be the topic of her research. It was all an unforgettable experience, and I just have to share a few photos from our travels. 

That just about does it for this Week in UR. I hope to see student readers of this newsletter at the Mag Lab this Friday. And I and my colleagues across the disciplines very much look forward to reviewing your symposium abstracts and, in just a few short weeks, hearing about your research at TSC’s Seventh Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium!