Working Here

Research opportunities for Cornell undergraduates

I started my own scientific career working first as an undergraduate research intern and then on an honors thesis and I retain a strong commitment to involving undergraduates in my research projects. Our growing number of current and pasts undergraduate students and their projects are described in the Who We Are section of this site.

We are best suited for undergraduates who have a strong general interest in the topics we study. Interning here is a substantial time commitment, as undergraduates working in the Evolutionary Biology Program typically undertake independent research projects that become honors theses. Most students who contact us about working here are initially concerned about finding a research topic, but in practice this has never proven to be a problem. Most students start out by interning in the laboratory to learn about the kind of work we do and gain experience with basic laboratory techniques. A useful aspect of our research is that most of what we do is based on a few straightforward laboratory processes, including DNA extraction, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and automated DNA sequencing or genotyping. By learning these basics, you can then go on to tailor them to specific research questions.

Over time, a typical student’s interests coalesce towards a more focused research question, often one that is related to projects that are already underway in the laboratory. As we support a large group of researchers with a diverse set of projects, thesis topics can be highly varied. Some students work closely with me or another faculty member, whereas others find graduate students who serve as their primary research mentors.

My own goal for honors students is to expose them to the full research process, from project conception and design through data acquisition and analysis to writing up their project as a formal paper submited to a scientific journal.

We have a few additional rules-of-thumb about undergraduate projects:

• Research is fundamentally time-intensive. You will need to be able to dedicate 10-15 hours a week on a very regular basis. The ability to work longer hours over the summer break is also a big help.

• We generally do not pay wages to undergraduate interns unless they are subsidized from outside sources such as the summer Hughes Scholars program or Cornell’s Presidential Research Scholars Program.

• We especially welcome inquiries from students who are in their first or second years at Cornell, because starting early gives more time to learn techniques and apply them to a research topic.