The Student Union announced in an e-mail April 17 the creation of an online research guide listing all the research opportunities in different academic departments and research centers at Brandeis, according to an April 17 e-mail. The purpose of the research guide was to make research opportunities more available to students, according to Anum Irfan Khan '10, the Student Union Director of Academic Affairs. The guide includes the names of more than 60 faculty members from departments in the creative arts, humanities, social sciences and sciences, as well as the Classical Artifact Research Center, The Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education, the Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center, the Volen National Center for Complex Systems and the Women's Studies Research Center.

Each faculty member's name is accompanied by their research interest, the qualifications necessary for applying to be their research assistant and the responsibilities of the research assistant.

Khan suggested creating the guide at a meeting with Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe and Provost Marty Krauss. Khan then led the initiative to create the guide along with Jaffe, Krauss, associate Dean of Arts and Sciences Elaine Wong and Adi Grabiner-Keinan, academic administrator for experiential learning. Kimberly Burk (GRAD), a student in the Cultural Productions program, designed the research guide's Web site.

Jaffe e-mailed all faculty members, asking them to submit their research interests and requirements for research assistants. More than 60 faculty members responded.

According to Grabiner-Keinan, students who want to participate in research projects often don't know how to get involved in research. "Sometimes [students] just didn't even [participate in research] because they didn't know that they could," she said.

The research guide, Krauss said, is "an effort to make sure that we have as strong a communication plan as possible." Khan said the guide was designed to increase student-faculty interaction and opportunities for students to participate in faculty research.

The guide is part of the University's Experiential Learning Program, designed to give students hands-on learning experiences outside the classroom. Its Web site therefore includes links to information about ways to fund student research through fellowships and grants as well as how to get academic credit for participating in research.

This year marks the first time the University has created an online research guide. In the past, Wong said, the University distributed a hard copy research guide. "The Web is the best way to [list research opportunities]," she said.

"We've always felt that the opportunity for undergraduates to engage with faculty in research is one of the strongest aspects of the Brandeis experience," Jaffe said.

Of the more than 60 faculty who responded to Jaffe's e-mail, Khan said, "Considering that this is the first time this is happening, is a huge number." As more students use the guide, Khan predicted that "more faculty members are going to come on board."

Prof. Jill Greenlee (POL) who responded to Jaffe's e-mail said that the list of politics faculty in the research guide "represent[s] some of the very different research that's going on in the department," including international relations, comparative politics and American politics.

While Greenlee and other politics professors have hired undergraduate research assistants, Greenlee said that not all professors will submit information to the guide, as they may not currently require a research assistant.

Similarly, Prof. Daniel Ruberman (MATH), who did not respond to Jaffe's e-mail with his research interests, said that "everybody in the Math department does research, [but] not everybody is . willing to work with undergraduates."

Prof. Bulbul Chakraborty (PHYS), who also did not respond to Jaffe's e-mail, said that the guide covers all the areas of research in the physics department, but it does not cite all physics faculty.

"These are all the areas that we have research going on in, but there are lots more people who should have sent [their research interests] in," she said.

When Angela Pisoni '12 asked a psychology professor to work in his lab next fall, she said she "had to ask [a student] who's already in the [psychology] department to clarify" what research the professor does. A research guide listing all psychology professors' research interests would have been useful, she said.

Marina Gindelsky '09 said the research guide would have been "very helpful" while she was a newer student. An Economics major, she said it was difficult to find a professor who needed a research assistant.

"For science [majors] it's easy [to become a research assistant] because there's a lot of positions," she said. "For social sciences and humanities [majors], it's difficult.