On Campus
During the beautiful Berkshire summer, students are hired for up to 9 weeks to work with a Biology faculty member on research projects. Most of these students spend their summer doing research at Williams College but some accompany their faculty mentor to field sites.
Information to apply for a summer research position (Williams students only):
- Rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors are welcome to apply.
- A lab open house and information session is held in January to provide you with an opportunity to learn about the research opportunities available. After attending the open house and researching which labs you may be interested in, you should make an appointment to meet with each faculty member with whom you may want to work.
- Fill out and submit the Summer Research Application Form. Applications are due this year by February 9, 2025.
Whitehead Scholars Program
Through the generosity of John Whitehead (class of 1967), an endowed program was established to support an academic collaboration between Williams College and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA. As part of this program, two positions are available to sophomores to participate as interns at the Whitehead Institute for a ten-week research experience during the summer and potentially a subsequent four-week term during Winter Study. In addition to a summer stipend, housing (typically an Airbnb or a private apartment sublet) and the cost of transportation to and from Boston will be provided.
The Whitehead Institute is ranked as one of the top biomedical research institutions in the world, and has an outstanding scientific staff. Each student selected to participate in this program will work in a Whitehead faculty member’s lab. Group leaders’ research interests can be found at https://wi.mit.edu/people. While applicants are not required to have taken genetics, research in most labs at the Whitehead Institute rely heavily on molecular genetic approaches.
For further information about this program, please contact Professor Lois Banta by e-mail.
To Apply:
Applications are open only to current sophomores, in late January-early February of their sophomore year. Interested students should apply by submitting the following information:
- Name, class, and intended major
- A list of science courses taken at Williams
- Any previous research experience, and future plans
- Applicants are welcome to mention particular areas of research interest, but lab assignments are made by the Whitehead Institute, and we cannot guarantee that the lab placement will be in that field.
Please designate “Whitehead Science Program” at the top of the submission and email completed application to Lois Banta by Monday, February 10, 2025.
Other Summer Opportunities
Many students apply for summer research positions elsewhere and end up working in labs or at field sites at other academic institutions. If you are interested in opportunities to do research at other institutions:
- take a look at the websites for institutions at which you might like to work—search for “summer undergraduate research” or “SURF” to see what opportunities might be available.
- check out the resources at ’68 Center for Career Exploration
- look at this catalog of biomedical research internships offered nationwide for high school, undergraduate, post-baccalaureate, graduate, and first-year medical students.
- look at this fairly comprehensive list maintained by a colleague at RIT: http://people.rit.edu/gtfsbi/