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The Scene

Edwin Land's A. D. Little Memorial Lecture in 1957 is often cited as the inspiration for the start of UROP, though UROP started more than a decade later. In the interim the Physics department had created a course offering undergraduate research in the year following the lecture. The 8.12 Special Problems in Undergraduate Research course was offered in the 1958-59 school year. It started out under anonymous supervision. In the 1963-64 the department head, Professor Buechner, added the 8.13 Readings in Physics course offering. In the 1967-68 year Professor Hill assumed responsibility for 8.12 and 8.13. That year Professor Buechner stepped down as Head and Professor Weisskopf assumed the burden, as he described the act at that time. At that time Professor Hill became the associate physics department head. He had also the title of Undergraduate Planning Professor, an office he assumed in 1965. This office gave him, ex officio, membership on the Institute Curricula Committee. At this point, then, the Physics department's undergraduate research offering had hooks into as many centers of Institute prestige and power that could even unreasonably be expected. Prestige and power were available, but not clout, possibly. And the financial environment was grim. The President's Reports at that time describe the sacrifices necessary to live within the skimpy budget. The divestiture of Draper Laboratory had thrown a monkey wrench into the well lubricated gear train of the Institute's finances apparently.

Events on a parallel time line are of interest. In the Spring of 1962 Dave Douglass gave the Taste of research course described above. It was dropped by me in the Spring of 1963 and I gave my 8.44 Introduction to Solid State Physics course in the Fall of 1962. That year there were several women taking the course. among them was Margaret MacVicar. She was a good student, and we developed an easy friendship at that time that remained intact until she died. Conversations centered on many topics, her research, her education plans, academic politics, et cetera. And we did discuss the abortive attempt at providing an undergraduate research experience with the optional 8.10 course Douglass ran. She finished her bachelor's thesis in 1964 and graduated. She continued on for a Doctor of Science in the Metallurgy and Materials Science department with Professor Rose. She presented a thesis in 1967, and went to Cambridge University in England for a year. The Fall of 1968 she returned to MIT now as an Instructor. She came in to tell about her year abroad. She was pleased that she had used a method of analysis I had presented in the 8.44 Solid State course on a problem she successfully completed in England. That year Edwin Land set up a trust fund and dedicated its income, nearly $1.5M over the following three years, to educational development at MIT. Probably Professor Gray, who was appointed associate dean for student affairs in 1965 and assistant provost in 1968, was involved in some way with this endeavor and with Professor MacVicar's vision for student involvement in ongoing research.

According to her Tech Talk obituary, in 1969, at the suggestion of Edwin Land and using a grant of $50K from the Land trust's income, now Assistant Professor of Physics MacVicar started a group of 25 students on undergraduate research projects -- UROP. And the next year, in the Physics section of the President's report Department Head Weisskopf announced that 100 students had enrolled in UROP projects. The department offerings for undergraduate research, 8.12 and 8.14, became 8.18 and 8.19 in 1968. They continued, as stated above, under Professor Hill's supervision through 1969-70, at which point Professor French assumed responsibility for them. They have continued to be offered; Professor Pritchard, the Physics Department Undergraduate Major Coordinator has supervised them in recent years. Since UROP was often the means for entry into a thesis topic, undergraduate thesis and UROP have been supervised by the same academic staff member.

In the past few years the UROP program has serviced three quarters of the MIT undergraduate student population. Of that number, 3000, two thirds of them carry on the project as recipients of a stipend. The annual budget of the program is $15M, a sum sufficient to pay each participant $5K minus the mystical amounts accountants conjure up for overhead, and general and administrative expenses.