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Pepperdine University Set to Host SCCUR 2022

Malibu Campus

On November 19, 2022, Pepperdine University will host the Southern California Conference for Undergraduate Research (SCCUR) on its Malibu campus. Over 100 undergraduate institutions will gather together at this event, as students share the results of their ongoing research. 

“Pepperdine is excited to host the first annual in-person conference since the pandemic,” comments Dr. Stella Erbes, Program Chairperson. “SCCUR gives undergraduates the unique experience of presenting their research at a professional conference. Students from all over the nation will gather on our beautiful campus in Malibu, California to explain the studies that they have completed along with their faculty mentors.”

Throughout the course of the day, 600 different research projects will be presented by undergraduate students. These presentations include oral lectures and poster projects. The individual topics of each vary and represent the fields of STEM, business, literature, film studies, and the performing arts. This wide array of research contributes to the theme of SCCUR 2022’s conference, “Inspiration.”

“The theme for this year’s conference comes from the Netflix series entitled ‘Inspiration4,’ which follows the story of the first civilian crew that went to space last year,” says Erbes. “Entrepreneur and billionaire Jared Issacman led the efforts to send four civilians on this mission. Each crew member represented a virtue such as Leadership, Hope, Generosity, and Prosperity. The space voyage was also used as a fundraiser which collected over 200 million dollars for cancer research. We are confident that attendees will be inspired by the scholarly efforts and research results that have sprung from laboratories, studies, libraries, and fieldwork venues across the landscape of higher education.” 

To push the concept of inspiration further, two speakers will be featured at the conference – both of which are astronauts. Dr. Sian Proctor, who served as the Inspiration IV mission pilot, will offer a welcome greeting virtually. The keynote will be delivered in-person by Dr. José M. Hernandez, who went from being a migrant farmer to traversing outer space. 

Over 1,200 individuals have registered to attend this year’s gathering. However, the crowd will not be composed of purely California institutions. Instead, schools such as Harvard, Yale, even King’s College in London help to make this event one that stretches from coast to coast and even across the Atlantic. 

SCCUR originally began hosting conferences in 1993 – traditionally on the Saturday prior to Thanksgiving. It serves a multidisciplinary symposium that allows a variety of students to practice the art of presenting in a professional and scholarly setting. Pepperdine University last hosted the event in 2010.