Research begins with questions. What is God revealing in what He has made? And who will be served by what we learn?
For 16 summers, the Hodson Research Institute (HRI) has given undergraduates the chance to move beyond studying science and take part in discovery themselves. Established in 2011 through the generosity of the Arthur Hodson Foundation, HRI provides a fully funded summer experience in which IWU-Marion students work alongside faculty mentors on projects with scientific and human significance.
This year, 19 students joined nine faculty-mentored projects under HRI Program Director Benjamin Linger, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry. One team, led by Tara Renbarger, Ph.D., associate professor of biology, tested store-bought probiotic and prebiotic supplements and found that nearly every product contained bacteria capable of breaking down red blood cells. The team is now sequencing those bacteria to learn what the findings mean for consumers. Other projects ranged from crop yields and the gut microbiome to neuron detection, artificial intelligence, and personalized health care.
Source: Hodson Research Institute, August 2026
HRI has nearly 300 undergraduates who have taken part, many of whom continue to medical school, doctoral programs, and careers in science. For two of them, the summers shaped not only what came next but who they became.
Alex Lovins ’20 says his 2018 HRI research provided the hands-on training that helped prepare him to teach chemistry. Hannah Hartzler Lovins, Ph.D., ’20, spent three summers in HRI research before earning a doctorate in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology from The Ohio State University. “These summers are where I found my calling for teaching and mentoring undergraduates in exploring God’s Creation!” she said.
“These summers are where I found my calling for teaching and mentoring undergraduates in exploring God’s Creation!”
Today, both are assistant professors at the University of Findlay, welcoming students into research the way IWU faculty once welcomed them: asking questions alongside them, developing their abilities, helping young scientists discover what they can contribute.
That is the quiet arithmetic of mentorship, and it follows a pattern as old as the faith itself: what is received is meant to be passed on. What faculty invested in two students now multiplies through every student they will teach. For scholars like the Lovinses, research is a way of exploring what God has made with rigor, humility, and wonder, and of putting knowledge to work for others. Discovery becomes an act of care, and the laboratory is one more place Christ’s presence permeates.
