On Sept. 9, 2026, Jay Zambito, director of the School of Environmental & Sustainability School and chair of the Geology department, gathered up most of the Beloit College faculty for a talk about the past, present, and future of Beloit’s student research program.
Crammed near-to-bursting Pearson’s Moore Lounge, enjoying lunch and a blissful air-conditioned moment away from the scorching heat outside, an audience of professors and administrators alike gathered to hear Dr. Zambito speak from his own experience in running research programs, and suggest how they might improve the experience for students.
Dr. Zambito, for his part, has long been a pillar of Beloit College’s independent research ambitions, with over 15 years of hands-on experience, experience running multiple capstone courses, and a number of projects under his belt. It is through this experience that Dr. Zambito and others have identified a number of issues with how independent research has been conducted and managed on campus to this point.
The new student researcher experience was an area of particular concern. As it stands now, student researchers begin with almost no related background or technical knowledge, are trained closely and extensively for a single summer or semester term, and eventually gain a deep familiarity with all the lab’s ins and outs. However, at the end of that term, most students are made to abandon that massive investment altogether, and move on to the next thing. The cycle of bringing on new people, establishing a foundation of background knowledge, having them properly contribute for a few weeks, just to ultimately send them away has, according to Dr. Zambito, slowed the pace of research dramatically. Other concerns, like low pay for students and professors, a limiting academic calendar preventing research into the school year, and a culture that still conflates positive results with success, have led to the creation of a system which is confusing and difficult to navigate for both professors looking to offer research and students looking to pick up their first position.
“They can make a lot more anywhere off campus… If I had an option to give wages or credit to students that would absolutely help retention,” Zambito concluded.
On the other hand, he and other members of the faculty offer a vision of the future which could stand to benefit everyone involved. It starts, Zambito explained, by keeping the people who know what they’re doing around longer. He proposed a system of student mentorship, where previous participants maintain a presence in the lab as long as the experiment continues.
Students with more experience could provide individualized help and attention to the newest researchers, working in tandem with the leading professor to minimize the time taken up by training.
Keeping previous researchers in the loop could also allow for larger experimental scope, make the toughest parts of research more accessible to newcomers, and shift the culture of research at Beloit away from an obsession with results and towards one that accepts failure as a natural part of good, empirical science.
“Younger students can learn that from more experienced ones. It can be helpful to hear that I didn’t get anything done or had difficulties– that we’re in this together,” Zambito spoke passionately.
It was clear from his presentation that Dr. Zambito and many others among the faculty were dissatisfied with the constraints placed on them and their work by time, access to money, and a lack of institutional support for professors looking to start up research projects, outside of certain channels. The Pakula Biomedical Fellowship, run by Dr. Tawnya Cary, was especially commended as a model for an excellent research program, especially for its ability to guarantee dependable sources of income and incentives for students and faculty alike. Dr. Zambito quickly tempered this praise however, saying that while it should act as a goal for Beloit’s independent programs to reach for, the Pakula Biomedical Fellowship shouldn’t be the only option available to people interested in starting or participating in research on campus.
By taking steps of his own to improve both the experience of participating in and running his independent research, Zambito appears committed to setting an example for others to follow in the years to come. Now more than ever, with one of Beloit College’s largest-ever freshman classes taking their first steps toward research, the system for the doing of that research must, undeniably, adapt. Dr. Zambito, through the establishment of a near-peer mentoring system, more aggressive pursuit of certain grants, and a focus on learning rather than obtaining results, hopes to guide on-campus research into something more accessible, personal, and less intimidating for people to approach.
“The near-peer mentor is the key… I think the first year student would be hesitant to ask questions because they fear, oh, this isn’t a good question. It may look like I don’t know, right?
They may have that kind of a certain impostor syndrome. And so with the student, they’re more likely to be able to ask those questions,” he concluded. “But it’s also the lab group, we get together and we share our failures, we share our successes, we share our stress, we share our happiness, and we share food, all of those things together, it creates a welcoming environment.”
Featured image: Theo Bjornstad’27
Leave a Reply