Research Opportunities
Inquiry, investigation, and discovery are at the
heart of Stanford's mission. Opportunities for discovery begin in
the classroom and extend into the rich research life of campus laboratories,
libraries, studios and beyond. The University urges undergraduates
to join with our faculty in the search for new knowledge and new
artistic creation.
The Undergraduate Research Programs (URP) office is the campus nexus
for information about becoming personally involved in the exciting
quest of a research project.
Recent examples of student research projects:
The Stars in Peru: Naomi Levin, a double major in geological and environmental sciences and anthropological sciences, performed field studies of the archaeoastronomical significance of a site -- Chavín de Huántar -- in Peru by creating digitized topographic maps that she then compared to astronomical phenomena.
Gymnasts in China: Sarah Catherine Harding,
an East Asian studies major and member of the varsity gymnastics
team, traveled to China to interview professional and amateur gymnasts
and to train with them to better understand differences between
U.S. and Chinese approaches to sport.
Civil Rights in Mississippi: History major Roscoe Jones Jr. wrote an honors thesis on the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, a state-funded group that spied on civil rights workers from 1956 to 1973. Inspired by his father's experiences as a civil rights activist, Jones studied FBI files and previously sealed records in Mississippi, Louisiana and Washington, D.C.
Related information: