Summer Research Opportunities with Columbia Faculty

Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (URF) offers various funding awards to support Columbia students interested in engaging in full-time research over the summer. While students may develop their own independent research projects, URF welcomes the opportunity to connect students with faculty members who are interested in having an undergraduate researcher contribute to a specific research project of their own.

Through this collaboration, undergraduate researchers have the opportunity to engage in research activities in a specific academic discipline allowing them to learn firsthand about what academic research entails. They will also have the opportunity to develop relationships with experts in their field, enriching their undergraduate experience while allowing them to consider academic goals and postgraduate careers.

HOW TO APPLY

Review the list of opportunities below, taking note of any requirements, and then apply for one of the following summer funding awards through URF. Don't see something of interest to you? Check back! URF adds to this list as new opportunities are made available. (Please note the instructions below before starting your application!)

*Please note that these opportunities are only available to students who are currently enrolled undergraduates in good standing at Columbia.

• Laidlaw Scholars (CC First-Years or CC transfer students in their first year at Columbia)
• CC Summer Research Fellowships (first, second and third year CC students are eligible to apply)

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• All research opportunities are full-time, in person, on campus, and are six weeks in duration, coinciding with Summer Session A (unless otherwise indicated). Participation in a faculty research project is not compatible with taking courses, working at another job, or volunteering;
• In your application, please list the title of the project you are seeking to contribute to; explain why you are interested in this project, and describe any past experience you believe relevant to your candidacy. In an effort save faculty inboxes, please do not reach out to faculty directly. We will share your applications with the faculty member connected to the project of interest, and we will be in touch with you regarding the status of your application;
• Students may only apply to ONE faculty project, and students must apply through URF. Please do not attempt to contact the faculty member directly; if you have questions, e-mail ugrad-urf@columbia.edu.

SUMMER 2026 FACULTY RESEARCH PROJECTS

Anti-mafia investigative journalists in Sicily

• Department: Anthropology

• Description: This project involves indexing and digitalizing the entire legal case from a murder of an investigative journalist in 1988. The trial took place in 2011-2014. The entire case and relevant others have been scanned.

• Primary Duties: The student researcher will collect jpeg images in pdf files and index them in Zotero, connecting them to other multimedia files collected over the years. In addition to examining and indexing files, the undergraduate researcher will conduct research into online newspapers and media sites that have discussed the life, and death, of this investigative journalist, and the questions that were raised at the trial.

• Requirements: Intermediate Italian reading and writing skills; some familiarity with spreadsheets, image-pdf conversion, and the online bibliographic platform Zotero

• Time commitment: 30 hours minimum / week, 6 weeks.

Portugal's Start-up Ecosystem

• Department: Anthropology

• Description: Over the last decade, Lisbon has been witnessing the emergence of a young startup ecosystem. In collaboration with the government and the community, Lisbon aspires to become one of the most competitive, innovative and creative cities in Europe as notable foreign companies are settling up offices in Portugal’s capital. This newly launched financial ecosystem is affecting the entire urban and coastal landscape, including relation with the sea, in aesthetic, political and economic terms. The student would be involved in researching in detail some of these emerging start-ups, their online and offline dynamics with the city, within Portugal’s Start-up Ecosystem, particularly in light of the recent promotion of Lisbon into a “Capital of Innovation” by the European Commission.

• Primary Duties: The student would be responsible to collect and develop a startup ecosystem survey and overview profile not only in terms of the specific scale-up levels (the world of Portuguese “minicorns” and “unicorns”) but also in its relation to the larger context of Portugal as an emerging tech hub. If conditions permit it, in addition to online research the student would join me in the field during month June.

• Requirements: Basic knowledge/understanding of ethnographic methods as well as Portuguese is required.

• Time commitment: 35 hours minimum / week, 6 weeks

Searching for Counterparts of Gravitational Wave Sources

• Department: Astronomy
• Status: Accepting Applications
• Description: We will be looking for a characteristic X-ray "echo" produced by X-rays emitted at the time of the merger of two black holes (giving rise to a burst of gravitational waves) scattering off the dust in our own Galactic interstellar medium. Such an echo will pinpoint the precise position of the source, an issue of fundamental importance in astrophysics and cosmology; the gravitational wave data alone cannot tell us. There are now over fifty black hole-black hole gravitational wave events to examine.
• Primary Duties: All X-ray and gravitational wave data we require are in the public domain, easily accessible to anyone with a laptop. We will identify and assemble the data to be searcged, Simple software to visualize and manipulate data is available for download. We may need some simple customized calculations on the images we inspect, so a bit of (very) basic programming experience is necessary (having written simple code in, for instance, Python or something similar). We will publish the results of the search collectively, with the group of undergrads who have worked and are working on this problem.
• Requirements: Simple programming skills in Python or comparable language
• Time commitment: 35 hours minimum / week, 6 weeks

Analysis of high-speed internet deployment

• Department: Computer Science

• Description: The federal government has been trying for the past decade to bring high-speed internet access ("broadband") to even the most rural locations. The project analyzes how effective this has been and whether satellite service such as StarLink can provide an alternative.

• Primary Duties: Analyze very large data sets, using geospatial, statistical, or machine learning techniques. Formulate and test hypotheses. Integrate data sources such as census data.

• Requirements: Statistics; Python (e.g., Jupyter Notebook); SQL helpful.

• Time commitment: 35 hours minimum / week, 6 weeks

Melting ice, ocean circulation, and abrupt climate change in the past

• Department: Earth and Environmental Sciences
• Status: Accepting Applications
• Description: The last ice age was punctuated by repeated abrupt climate changes that involved dramatic cooling of the northern hemisphere at times when much of southern hemisphere was warming. These climate shifts occurred at times of episodes of catastrophic iceberg discharge from the vast Laurentide ice sheet that covered much of North America, and the melting icebergs may have reduced northward heat transport by weakening the large-scale Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). Although computer simulations consistently suggest it is possible, and this mechanism is widely favored as a potential explanation for these otherwise puzzling climate oscillations, some studies have argued that the bipolar temperature changes actually happened first, thus causing iceberg outbursts into the glacial ocean. A study site that is positioned near the boundary of the subtropical gyre and the subpolar North Atlantic holds great promise to contribute to resolving this puzzle. Paired measurements of two proxies for deep ocean circulation will be compared to proxy evidence for sea-surface temperature change and ice-drift in the central Atlantic. The selected student will have the opportunity to generate a paleoclimate record for the last ice age that can be combined with existing evidence to complete a record of variations in regional oceanographic climate conditions that can be directly compared to deep ocean proxies in the same sediment core. This in turn may help determine whether icebergs and melting ice initiated the climate changes, or were instead released subsequently as glaciers grew in response to the abrupt northern cooling. What is needed is a sequence of evidence in the same sediments that can unequivocally clarify the roles of icebergs, glacial meltwater, ocean circulation and sea-surface temperature (SST) change. Simultaneous investigation of proxies for all of these processes in sediments from the selected study site may provide such insights.
• Primary Duties: The student will work in our shared sediment and microscopy laboratories in the New Core Lab at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO). Free hourly transportation is provided between Morningside and LDEO. This project will require a student to process samples taken from sediment cores, identify and quantify ice-rafted debris, determine the relative abundance of polar foraminifera species, and possibly select and prepare specimens for isotopic analysis. They will then apply visual and simple time-series analyses to assess the sequence of climate events. Training will be provided for all procedures.
• Requirements: None, although knowledge of basic oceanography and climate are helpful.
• Time commitment: 35 hours minimum / week, 6 weeks

How did past ice age cycles affect the climate in the Pacific Ocean?

• Department: Earth and Environmental Sciences
• Status: Accepting Applications
• Description: The Earth has experienced repeated and extended episodes of global glaciation over the last two million years. These past climate changes increased in magnitude during the past million years, with sea level variations of more than 120 meters, and large changes in regional temperature, in association with increases and decreases concentration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Although the climate variations are documented very well in ice cores from Antarctica and in sediment cores from the Atlantic Ocean, there is less detailed information available about oceanographic and climate changes in the Pacific Ocean throughout these glacial cycles. Seagoing sediment coring and ocean drilling has recovered long sequences of deep-sea sediments from a range of locations that hold the promise for insights into the Pacific response to global climate change, including variations in the tropical El Niño – Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon, and biological productivity and deep-ocean carbon storage in the North Pacific. This project is designed to allow a student to contribute to the body of knowledge that can help answer the question of how the Pacific Ocean varied through ice age climate cycles. It will involve hands-on investigation of deep-sea sediments and sedimentary constituents including microfossils from one or more Pacific Ocean sites.
• Primary Duties: The student will work in our shared sediment and microscopy laboratories in the New Core Lab at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO). Free hourly transportation is provided between Morningside and LDEO. This project will require a student to process samples from the sediment core, identify sedimentary components using a binocular microscope, select and prepare microfossil foraminifera specimens for isotopic analysis. Training and guidance will be provided for all procedures, which will use existing equipment including freeze-dryer, ovens, microbalance, sieves, beakers and microscope.
• Requirements: None, although knowledge of basic oceanography and climate are helpful.
• Time commitment: 35 hours minimum / week, 6 weeks

Trees

• Department: English and Comparative Literature
• Status: Accepting Applications
• Description: This project, which corresponds with two classes taught at Columbia (one graduate and one undergraduate core seminar) on "Trees" is part of a work-in-progress to connect narratives and histories about trees with the history of deforestation, literature and environment, colonization, and conversion. This is a wide ranging project in terms of time period, geographic interest, and methodology and provides a different means for conceptualizing climate crises by means a longer historical context. The applicant should have an ability - or an eagerness- to navigate diverse fields, periods, and terminology. Languages a plus. Interest in literature and eco-criticism is necessary. Approaches from literature, art history, philosophy, history, religion, archaeology, all helpful, while also interested in earth sciences, economics, anthropology also helpful.
• Primary Duties: Pursue independent research on the topic in particular areas of interest, in coordination; Assist in organizing research materials (create a library of pdf's, recordings, films, etc) according to geographic location and period - be able to develop a system to cross reference; find new data/relevant publications; correspond with other scholars and organizations. Ability to work with RBML a plus, but not absolutely necessary.
• Requirements: Good organizational capacities and familiarity with literary research required. Ability to work in diverse languages a plus. Literary backgrounds with interest in eco-critical studies an asset. Web building skills a plus in terms of creating a new archive and possibly a mapping database.
• Time commitment: 35 hours minimum / week, 6 weeks

Global Health History focused on South Asia: The politics of immunity, chronicity and risk in post colonial India

• Department: Sociomedical Sciences and History
• Status: Accepting Applications
• Description: Focus is on a modern history of how public health, social science, demographic and psych disciplines in post colonial India have evolved and defined and understood immune and compromised bodies and chronic disease outside of the laboratory, and debates around health and citizenship (1940-90's).
• Primary Duties: Searches in online archives, ordering and working with secondary and primary sources, identifying key parts of these texts, and helping to synthesize and frame these different strands of ideas in debates in global agencies (UN/WHO/Rockefeller) and in India. Conducting a oral history interviews is a possibility; in addition, the student researcher will work with collected archival documents, classifying them and making annotated bibliographies.
• Requirements: Training in history and/or anthropology in course work, and exposure to biological sciences/psychology is welcome; interest in archives and primary sources analysis is also a plus. Skills in organizing references and readings to be able to access quotes, citations and sources (Zotero or other) is also welcome.
• Time commitment: 35 hours minimum / week, 6 weeks

Climate Change & Environmental Law Project

• Department: Columbia Law School
• Status: Accepting Applications
• Description: The Sabin Center is seeking 1 to 2 undergraduate researchers to work on a range of cutting-edge climate change, energy, and environmental policy issues.
• Primary Duties: Projects may include research and writing on federal government attempts to undermine climate science, the roll-back of federal climate-related regulations, the cancellation of federal grants for climate mitigation and adaptation efforts, and other topics. Researchers will receive broad exposure to the field of climate law, both domestically in the US and internationally.
• Requirements: Interest in the field. Students with some background in environmental policy, energy policy, and/or sustainable development are particularly encouraged to apply.
• Time commitment: 35 hours minimum / week, 6 weeks

Midwifery and the Birth of the Modern Middle East

• Department: MESAAS
• Description: This project examines the history of childbirth and midwifery in the Middle East between 1870 and 1950, focusing on Arabic, Armenian, and Turkish sources. The project explores how reproduction, maternal care, and women’s labor and delivery were framed. This study engages human rights questions on two interconnected fronts. First, the project examines how states, medical institutions, and social actors sought to regulate women’s bodies and reproductive choices—highlighting enduring questions about bodily autonomy, access to healthcare, and the intersection of gender and state power. Second, it situates midwifery in the context of mass violence and displacement: the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the massacres and destruction of communities, the emergence of the modern Middle East, and the rebuilding of lives in exile. In these crucibles, midwives and nurses became critical actors in sustaining communities, providing care, and enabling survival.
• Primary Duties: Assist in reviewing and annotating documents (midwifery registers, medical treatises, health regulations, and newspaper coverage); Transcribe handwritten and printed materials in Arabic, Armenian, or Turkish into searchable text for inclusion in the project corpus; Help prepare datasets that will be used in an AI-assisted analysis of discourse on midwifery and reproduction.
• Requirements: Fluency in reading one of the following languages: Arabic, Armenian, or Turkish.
• Time commitment: 35 hours minimum / week, 6 weeks.

Partisan Polarization and "Culture War" Issues

• Department: Political Science
• Status: Accepting Applications
• Description: Over the last generation partisan polarization on “culture war” issues has become a defining feature of American politics, with the Democratic Party embracing social liberalism and the Republican Party embracing social conservatism. This was not always the case; for much of the 20th century, social issues such as abortion rights and LGBT rights played virtually no role in politics. Today, of course, they are central to partisan conflict. This transformation, despite its importance, is not well understood. In fact, there is little consensus among political scientists as to its timing, sequence, or causes. Using a variety of data sources, particularly a newly compiled set of historic state-party platforms, we aim to answer a number of crucial questions: Where and when did the partisan divide begin on abortion and gay and lesbian rights? Which party ``moved first"? Was there a critical moment, or was position change incremental? Do abortion and gay rights follow the same pattern? While it is possible that the rise of social issues took place entirely on the national stage, then later spread to state and local politics, we set out to explore the possibility that these debates took place first at the state level.
• Primary Duties: A student researcher would assist with data collection and analysis. The data we will be collecting this summer include state legislative roll call votes on relevant bills, local media cover of abortion and LGBT rights, and debates within the political parties about position taking on these issues. We will focus on four case study states---California, Texas, Minnesota, and Massachusetts---during the 1970s and late 1960s.
• Requirements: No specialized skills are necessary.
• Time commitment: 35 hours minimum / week, 6 weeks.

Interactions between Attention, Perception, and Imagination

• Department: Psychology
• Status: Accepting Applications
• Description: The Living Lab is looking for a Research Assistant who will work on a project investigating the interaction between Attention, Perception, and Imagination. The project encompasses three tasks, and the RA will mainly be assisting with conducting the studies and helping coordinate the work of other lab members. Current Research Assistants will be providing training for the tasks.
• Primary Duties: Attend weekly lab meetings; Maintain the lab IRBs up to date; help coordinate lab activities and scheduling of participants; maintain the Sona system page; run experimental sessions; miscellaneous tasks upon request. Researcher is also welcome to develop their own study (to be decided with the PI).
• Requirements: Background in Psychology, Neuroscience, or computer science / coding; One year or more experience in a research lab; Interest in committing to longer-term work in the lab; Previous knowledge of neuroscience is highly preferred; Excellent attention to detail, high level of self-motivation, and strong interpersonal and organizational skills.
• Time commitment: 35 hours minimum / week, 6 weeks