Irfanul Alam is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the EBIO department at CU. Dr. Lisa Corwin advises him and is investigating the effects of course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) courses on students鈥� ability to engage civically with the community using their STEM skills. He employs quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method approaches for his investigation and hopes to improve CURE design and assessment of undergraduates鈥� scientific civic engagement. He has created a survey that can measure predictors of SCE and is currently using the instrument to model differences between CURE courses in the US. Concurrently, he is also leading a case study at the University of Texas at El Paso to explain how students鈥� social identities impact their level of scientific civic engagement. After completing his doctorate next year, Irfan hopes to continue his work around social identities as a postdoc.
During his spare time, Irfan enjoys tending to his collection of houseplants, cooking, and watching videos of Shiba Inus on YouTube in the hope of adopting one.