The College of Pharmacy is one of two colleges at Oregon State University that only offers graduate and professional degrees, so undergraduates curious about pharmaceutical science can’t try out a course to determine whether they’re interested in pursuing further study.
Instead, students find their way in through research opportunities like the college’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program.
Split between the college’s Corvallis and Portland campuses, the SURF program is similar to the university-wide URSA Engage program, pairing undergraduates with faculty for short-term research projects. It has no specific prerequisites, other than student interest in the research they’ll be joining.
“It really is helpful for an undergraduate, especially if they’re planning to apply for the Pharm.D or Ph.D. program,” said Noelle Cummings, the pharmaceutical sciences graduate program coordinator. “They come in very well prepared to each of those programs, having had this opportunity to learn research methods in the lab.”
Students come from a variety of fields including chemistry, microbiology, biohealth sciences, toxicology and bioengineering, Cummings said.
The 10-week fellowship employs 12 to 15 students each summer and pays them minimum wage. Students are mostly from OSU, but the program is open to all and frequently includes students from Portland State University and the University of Portland, plus a few from out of state, Cummings said.
In many cases, the undergraduates work with grad students and postdocs for their day-to-day tasks, then have occasional check-ins with the faculty member principal investigator.
“We pair them with a lab partner, and that helps them learn the ways of the lab — the techniques and equipment,” said BJ Philmus, SURF program director and an associate professor whose research focuses on natural products made from bacteria and other organisms. “It’s very much focused on training.”
Ten weeks isn’t long enough to complete an entire research project, so the fellows are usually given smaller pieces that contribute to a larger study, Philmus said.
“The primary purpose is to give students the opportunity to do real-life research where you don’t know what the outcome is going to be,” he said. “It’s an important thing. They will always become part of the paper, because even if what they’re doing doesn’t work, they’ve shown us what doesn’t work.”
Fourth-year biochemistry and molecular biology major Taylor Hennelly was in the SURF program the last two summers, as part of her ongoing work in College of Pharmacy Professor Taifo Mahmud’s research group looking for novel bioactive compounds that can be used in human health applications.
Hennelly is primarily interested in pharmacodynamics, the study of how drugs work in the body at the molecular level, and she’s planning to pursue her Ph.D. in pharmacology.
“My experience with the SURF program has been extremely beneficial for both my research and career path,” she said. “I have learned new laboratory techniques, improved my public speaking skills and my ability to think critically and troubleshoot, and it has helped me narrow down my very broad research interests.”
Patrick Murdach, a 2025 biochemistry and molecular biology graduate, was also part of the Mahmud lab prior to participating in the fellowship in 2024. He said the financial assistance from the SURF program allowed him to stay focused on his research, getting more experience and becoming a better scientist.
“Working over the summer helped me to realize that research is something I love to do, not just during school,” he said. “My goal is to end up working in biotech and/or the pharmaceutical industry, working in research and development.”
Murdach started in the Mahmud lab in 2023 and said it was daunting at first before he got to know the other students working there. He’s stayed on after graduation and hopes to continue research in grad school next year, as well.
“Working in my lab is something I love, and I have lots of lab mates who support me and have given me amazing advice along the way,” he said. “As I have continued, it feels good that I’m at a point where I can offer my peers the same advice and support.”
During the 10-week fellowship, the Corvallis students take a field trip to Portland so the entire summer cohort can tour the Robertson Life Sciences Building on the Oregon Health & Science University campus, where both Pharm.D. and Pharmaceutical Science graduate students take classes. The group also takes a ride on the Portland Aerial Tram that connects the waterfront with OHSU.
After the fellowship ends, many of the undergrads end up continuing to work in their summer labs with the same mentors, though through different funding mechanisms, Cummings said.
“The students who do this program are the ones who have a real passion for this type of work and a genuine curiosity,” she said. “We love when students who participate in SURF join the College of Pharmacy and our graduate or Pharm.D. programs.”
