New student research gallery to debut at Anschutz Library
KU Libraries and the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (CURF) will open an exhibit featuring Kansas Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol in a new gallery space in Anschutz Library dedicated to highlighting student research on the Lawrence campus. The community is invited to an opening reception, with light refreshments and brief remarks from CURF and KU Libraries collaborators on March 25 at 2 p.m.
Each year, KU selects undergraduate students to share their research and creative projects with state lawmakers along with students from the KU Medical Center and other Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR) institutions. This year, four KU Lawrence students - Evanna Dominic (Chemical Engineering), Mira Rausch (Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology), Ariana Siddique (Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology), and Gerardo Fornoza (Political Science) - joined their peers from the other KBOR public four-year universities for a poster presentation on February 26, 2026. This year’s posters are now available to view in the gallery for viewing during regular library hours, along with a digital display of posters highlighting CURF-affiliated undergraduate research.
A research poster is a visual summary of a project's key findings, data and overview, typically displayed at academic or professional conferences. Posters may accompany an oral presentation and can be displayed in print, on a digital screen or through a virtual platform. At in person presentation events, researchers stand by their posters to engage directly with attendees.
The opening marks the first set of physical posters displayed in the libraries’ new student research gallery, located in a highly visible, high-traffic corridor of Anschutz Library’s main floor. The gallery aims to highlight exceptional research activity on campus, placing research posters in close proximity to some of the informational resources and experts the campus community utilizes when discovering, creating, and sharing knowledge. The gallery aims to increase the exposure of student scholarship and extend the life of research posters.
The gallery project, which includes four wall-mounted frames and a digital monitor, was funded by the KU Libraries’ Innovation Fund and follows a successful pilot in Watson Library’s Haricombe Gallery highlighting the 2025 Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol last spring.
“We're excited to showcase the interdisciplinary research that students are pursuing across campus,” said Science and Engineering Librarian Gwen Geiger-Wolfe who co-coordinated a libraries team developing the project. “By sharing these projects, we hope the gallery encourages more students to explore research opportunities and discover new academic paths, while reminding them that the KU Libraries are here as partners in their research journey.”
CURF connects students with research opportunities and nationally competitive scholarships and fellowships - including prestigious awards like the Rhodes, Marshall, Goldwater and Truman - while supporting faculty mentors and instructors in building research-focused curricula. The center advises students at every stage, from finding a research mentor to completing fellowship applications, and hosts programs and events that celebrate undergraduate research across campus.
“CURF is a central hub for students looking to get involved in research, creative projects, or to find mentors, which aligns closely with the libraries’ efforts to support student research,” said Undergraduate Engagement Librarian Sarah McCall, another co-coordinator of the project. “One of my hopes is to encourage all students to see themselves as scholars and researchers with ideas worth exploring, and to draw from the campus resources and opportunities available to them.
"I’m really excited that this collaboration, this gallery, located in a high-traffic area of Anschutz Library, recognizes and celebrates the impressive work of KU students while also pointing to opportunities for students who might be wondering how to get started with a research or creative project.”
In addition to providing access to print and digital collections from around the world, KU Libraries have long supported campus scholarship through digital publishing and scholarly communications initiatives. Student research, including posters, is housed in a variety of formats in KU ScholarWorks (KUSW), the institutional repository of the University of Kansas. It is an archive of scholarly work produced by KU faculty, staff, and students, as well as departmental research publications. KU researchers who add their scholarly work to ScholarWorks increase their visibility and impact by making their scholarship available to a worldwide audience, as well as providing long-term preservation of the materials.