By Jeff Hunter | December 20, 2024
Plants, Soils & Climate 

Cultivating Future Scientists: Amita Kaundal's Impact on Undergraduate Research at USU

By Jeff Hunter | December 20, 2024

Amita KaundalDr. Amita Kaundal didn’t have the opportunity to participate in undergraduate research as a student. As a faculty member, she’s been instrumental in developing a program at Utah State.Photo by Levi Sim.

While pursuing a college degree in her native country, India, Amita Kaundal didn’t have a chance to participate in research as an undergraduate student. But after coming to the United States and spending two years as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, Riverside, she accepted a position as an assistant project scientist at the USDA Salinity Lab in Riverside.

“I had a lot of opportunities to work with undergraduate researchers there, and that gave me this idea,” Kaundal recalls. “When I was growing up and studying, I did not have that opportunity. So, anytime I get the opportunity or have my own lab, I will start this program in my lab.”

Although she didn’t have the budget to pay her undergraduate researchers at the time, Kaundal says she still secured the services of nine students during her initial effort in 2018, “because they were so excited to just get the opportunity to have experience in lab work.”

Shortly afterward, Kaundal joined the faculty at Utah State University as an assistant professor in the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences. In the six years since, she’s been a champion of undergraduate research in the Plants, Soils and Climate Department, employing dozens of students in her lab, which is concerned with developing stress-resilient crops for sustainable agriculture in an era of climate change.

Katie Hewitt was one of the students who got involved in research in Kaundal’s laboratory on her way to graduating with a bachelor’s degree in plant science in 2023. Hewitt was a sophomore when she reached out to Kaundal at the urging of a friend of her now-husband who was an engineering student employed at the lab.

“He wasn’t really related to the program, but he said, ‘She’s awesome. You should work for her and get some hands-on experience to see if research is really what you want to do.’ So, I started working under her grad students from there, and really learned a ton.”

Eventually, Hewitt developed her own project, was awarded an URCO grant in the process, and was named the 2023 Undergraduate Researcher of the Year for CAAS — the same year Kaundal was honored as the Peak Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year. Hewitt is now back at Utah State pursing a master’s degree with the hope of eventually becoming a county extension agent.

“I would definitely encourage people to do undergraduate research,” Hewitt proclaims. “I think that it gave me a lot of confidence in myself and my abilities, and it gave me the ability to learn how to question and find answers for myself. I think it was just an incredible experience that I would hope anybody at all in scientific research would do. It’s a great opportunity.”


CONTACTS

Timothy R. Olsen
Writer
timothy.olsen@usu.edu