Undergraduate Research

Students in laboratory

Chemistry and Chemical Biology majors may do research for credit under the direction of a faculty member. Students are encouraged to select a research area of their own interest from among those pursued by the professors in the Department of Chemistry or in many other departments at Berkeley. Students contemplating graduate study should include research in their undergraduate program during their junior and senior year or earlier.

Chemical Engineering majors are encouraged to do research for credit under the direction of a faculty member. Students follow their own scientific interests in the selection of research projects. Such research usually involves experimental, theoretical, or computational work within the context of funded research directed by a faculty member in the CBE Department or in other departments on campus. Research fields currently under investigation by chemical engineering students include biomolecular engineering, synthetic biology, energy storage and generation, multiscale modeling of micro- and nano-systems and related technologies, catalysis, polymers and polymer physics, and many others. Students contemplating graduate study should include research in their undergraduate program during their junior and senior year, if not earlier.

Students from Colleges at UC Berkeley other than CoC

Undergraduates from L&S, Engineering, and other Colleges at Berkeley are eligible to conduct research with College of Chemistry faculty for credit. Please review the information in the "On-Campus Research" and "How to Get Credit for Research" sections below. If your research supervisor is not affiliated with the College of Chemistry, you are not eligible to receive credit for research through CoC.

How to Get Involved in Research

A good place to start is by reading the useful material from a recent Chem 96 offering. Also check out the 55 minute video below from Fall 2021, How to Get Involved in Research, sponsored by AXE, AIChE, and ACS, and featuring the following CoC faculty:

  • Prof. John Arnold, Undergraduate Dean
  • Prof. Steven Leone, Chemistry
  • Prof. Bryan McCloskey, Chemical Engineering
  • Prof. Evan Miller, Chemistry/MCB
  • Dr. Stefan Minasian, LBL
  • Prof. Dan Nomura, Chemistry/MCB

How to Get Involved in Research

Research Opportunities

The College offers undergraduate research opportunities both on-campus and with industry partners.

On-Campus Research

For on-campus research, find out which faculty research groups you are interested in joining:

Make an effort to learn about a faculty member's research. When you contact a faculty member to inquire about whether there is an opening in his/her lab, try to convey the level of your interest in a particular area.

If you plan to earn course credit for research, follow the procedures for enrollment in independent study courses listed below.

An interesting undergraduate student perspective was published in Nature on finding research opportunities. Although this is only one person's perspective, this and the information below will help you start thinking about how you can approach finding research opportunities.

Off-Campus Research

The College has established a number of formal internship opportunities with industry partners.

For details on the application process (students) or to list an intership (industry partners), please review the Off-Campus Undergraduate Research Experiences webpage.

Naget Carrick, Career Counselor

Najet Carrick

Career Adviser

If you are interested in off-campus research opportunities, please make an appointment with Najet via Handshake.