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How can you gain research experience to make sure this is the career path for you?

Most researchers agree that it was only when they actually got to physically do research that they knew this was the career for them. If you read the biographies, you’ll see that many of the researchers had other career plans until they had the opportunity to experience working in a lab. Then they were hooked on the excitement of a research career.

How do you go about finding a lab in which to work?

Contact your professors from classes that you particularly enjoyed or in which you did well. Ask them about research opportunities during the school year and over the summer.

Check with your departmental office. They know which faculty accept undergraduate research assistants.

Check with your school. Many schools have an Office of Undergraduate Research just for that purpose. Check with your school’s work-study program as well.

If you live in another city, check with colleges in your home town. Contact the department that best corresponds with your major.

Look on the web. There are many national organizations that offer summer research opportunities, such as National Science Foundation, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Cold Spring Harbor, and The American Physiological Society. A few of these programs are listed below.

On all of these opportunities, don’t wait until April or May to begin your investigation of summer opportunities. Many programs have deadlines in January or February.

Special Feature: Science Careers for Undergrads
Jim Austin, ScienceCareers.org, AAAS
July 2007

Summer Internships
Nathan Brightbill

National Undergraduate Research Programs
American Physiological Society’s (APS) Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship

AT&T Undergraduate Research Program

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories Watson School of Biological Sciences Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) Undergraduate Summer Fellowship

Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships
Office of Science, US Department of Energy

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Undergraduate Research Fellowships

Los Alamos National Laboratory Undergraduate Research Semester Program

National Aeronautics & Space Agency (NASA) Student Support Programs in Higher Education

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship

National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program

See also:
List of Undergraduate Research Programs by state

List of Undergraduate Research Journals
Brigham Young University Undergraduate Research Journal

Caltech Undergraduate Research Journal

Harvard Journal of Undergraduate Sciences

Journal of Undergraduate Research (DOE publ)

Journal of Young Investigators

University of California, Irvine Undergraduate Research Journal

*APS does not endorse or assume responsibility for the information posted on these web sites.