Science Research & Engineering Program

Imagine working on the cutting edge of scientific research

Since 1998, more than 300 of Hathaway Brown's Upper School students have had experiences like these through the innovative and nationally acclaimed Science Research & Engineering Program.

Hathaway Brown's Science Research & Engineering Program is an elective that was initiated in early 1998 by HB Director of Research and Kettering Chair in Science Research Patricia Kelly Hunt. It enrolls 25% to 30% of the grade 9-12 student population. Students in the Program are linked with supervising professionals from institutions such as Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals, The Cleveland Clinic, NASA Glenn Research Center, and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History for the purpose of conducting a research project. Once a placement is made, the SREP Director assists as necessary, also helping students prepare for optional competitions.

While most projects are scientific in nature, a number of students prefer to develop internship or shadowing experiences in non-scientific areas such as sports & entertainment management, architecture, radio broadcast, and fashion retail & marketing.

Current research projects in the Science Research & Engineering Program represent a cross-section of the cutting edge research that is occurring in the Cleveland area, including work on gene therapy, MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) nanotechnology, BioMEMS and microelectrochemical sensor development, as well as research into cures for many life-threatening diseases. One project, called PEACE, addresses a real erosion problem in low earth orbit, and experiments that are part of it have flown in space three times launched aboard the Space Shuttles Discovery and Endeavour and carried to the International Space Station for long-term exposure tests.

The work of HB's Science Research & Engineering Program students has garnered hundreds of awards at the regional, state, national, and international levels since 1999, including hundreds of thousands of dollars in college scholarships, cash and prizes including computers and all-expense paid trips to places such as London, Germany and Israel. Four SREP students have U.S. Patents for their original inventions, and there are more than 160 student authorships or co-authorships on technical publications or presentations.

The research of many of our students has advanced to the final levels of prestigious national competitions such as the Intel Science Talent Search and the Siemens-Westinghouse Competition. For two consecutive years, Hathaway Brown Science Research & Engineering Program students were selected from a national field for induction into the National Gallery for Young Inventors Hall of Fame, and for seven consecutive years our research students were named to the USA Today Academic All-Star Team.

Graduates of the Hathaway Brown Science Research & Engineering Program have used their high school experiences as a springboard for success as they go on to college careers at universities including Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Georgetown, Stanford, Columbia, Yale, Duke, Berkeley, Oxford, Cambridge and more. Our graduates include a Marshall Scholar, a Fulbright Scholar and one in the Peace Corps teaching science at a school in the foothills of the Himalayas!

As part of Hathaway Brown's philosophy that being a good community member means giving back to the community whenever possible, the Science Research & Engineering Program was expanded in 1999 to include young women from the Cleveland Public Schools through the Hathaway Brown Outreach Science Research & Enginnering Program. In the Outreach SREP, many young women from James Ford Rhodes High School and Lincoln West High School have been fostered by HB in many different ways as they conducted their very own multi-year research projects at area research institutions. One of these Outreach students even graduated from Harvard, the first Cleveland Public Schools student to matriculate there in several years. the Outreach SREP was expanded and became the precursor to the CWRU School of Medicine program for students from Cleveland Public Schools. HB cofounded this program, called the Scientific Enrichment and Opportunity Program, with CWRU and the Cleveland Public Schools and continues to collaborate with them in many ways.