Summer Research Opportunities
In any given summer, most Chemistry Department faculty members offer paid positions for between 1 and 5 student research assistants. Priority for these positions is usually given to Chemistry majors and/or to student who are involved with the research programs during the academic year. The best way to find out about these research opportunities is to talk directly with the faculty members; perusing the faculty web pages is a good way to find out about the type of research projects underway in each of the faculty laboratories.
Students should also consider applying for one of a number of summer research fellowships. Awards of these fellowships assures funding for a summer stipend for research in a Haverford lab over the summer. But before applying for these, you should talk with a faculty member to assure yourself that there is room in her or his lab for the type of research you wish to pursue. Here are some links for more information about summer fellowship programs at Haverford.
HHMI Interdisciplinary Scholars Program (application deadline is usually early February)
Beckman Scholars Program (application deadline is usually early February)
Brian Kovaric Fund for support of research by a rising sophomore (details available in early February)
John Chesick Memorial Summer Research Internship for rising sophomores or rising juniors who have a minimum of 3.5 as GPA in Chemistry courses taken to date. (We will look also at midterm performance in your current course [esp. for current Chem 105 students]). If you wish to apply for this internship, please submit a transcript and a one page essay describing in whose lab and why you would like to do research at Haverford this summer. This should be submitted to Prof. Terry Newirth, (Chair of Chemistry Department) early in the spring semester.
In addition to the sources mentioned above, some faculty members have grant funding for summer research assistants, and there are also endowed funds to support paid student research assistantships. Hiring decisions for these research assistantships are generally made by individual faculty members, and different faculty members will have different application processes. Many (but not all) faculty members give preference to rising seniors who wish to continue in the faculty member's lab for senior research projects. If you are interested in one of these summer research assistantships, we suggest you talk with faculty members in the early part of the second semester, and no later than February 15 (and it is a good idea to apply for the HHMI and Beckman Scholarships, if you meet the eligibility requirements, where the deadlines are early in February).
Faculty with research positions for upcoming summer
If you are interested in a research position with a Chemistry department faculty member, we suggest you talk with them at the beginning of the second semester (or earlier). It is OK (and you are encouraged) to talk with more than one faculty member to tell them of your interest and to learn more about their research.
- Karin Åkerfeldt, "Calcium-binding properties of EF-hand proteins; Design and synthesis of ion channel forming peptides, and Novel porphyrin-based biomaterials."
- Frances Rose Blase, "The Chemical Synthesis and Analysis of Natural Products that Display Important Chemistry"
- Casey Londergan, "Assessing protein conformation and flexibility using vibrational spectroscopy."
- Terry Newirth, "Synthesis and reactivity with thiols of a model compound for betacyanin, the compound that makes beets red."
- Alexander Norquist, "Hydrothermal synthesis of noncentrosymmetric metal oxide frameworks."
- Robert C. Scarrow, "Modeling the reactivity of metalloproteins with oxygen and other small redox-active molecules."
- Joshua Schrier, "Theoretical and computational chemistry of nanocrystals and nanowires."
Off-campus research opportunities
Many Haverford students are able to get summer positions in off-campus academic, government, or industrial labs for the summer. Here are some resources and links to help students get started on searching for such positions. Deadlines for fellowship programs and for off-campus research programs are usually sometime in February or early March. It doesn't hurt to ask about possibilities after this time, but your chances are better if you start earlier.
- Yellow Summer Research Folder in the study area outside of Prof. Newirth's office (E214D). The department chair gets many letters advertising summer positions as well as more permanent career opportunities, and these are placed in the yellow folder.
- Haverford's Career Development Office offers helpful information on securing summer internships and employment. Their Internship and Summer Job page contains: job search tips, online database of listings, funding opportunities, and resources.
- The American Chemical Society's Directory of Experience Opportunities contains information about many internship and co-op opportunities at industrial, academic and government research laboratories.
- A link to the web site of National Science Foundation REU program.