Program Description
A core mission of the College is to prepare our students for leadership and innovation. We provide them with multidisciplinary discovery opportunities, in particular with industry. The College collaborates with industry partners to provide high impact opportunities to rising undergraduate students in their third year or more.
We recognize the intrinsic relationship between diversity and excellence. We embrace open and equitable access to opportunities for learning and development as our obligation and goal. As such, the application process has been designed to fulfill these beliefs.
On average, students are expected to spend between 6-12 hours per week but no more than 20 hours per week during the fall or spring semester at the industry partner during the 16 weeks of a semester. Students who wish to earn credit will need to arrange for a faculty or graduate student advisor to ensure that a related scientific question is developed as part of their work with the sponsoring partner. The advisor meets on average with the student biweekly and with the sponsor and student together monthly to monitor the student’s progress. Students have been informed that they may need to sign a non-disclosure agreement with their sponsor, as required. These agreements are between the sponsor and the student and do not involve the University. Students have rights to develop and own intellectual property per University policy and may develop IP as part of their internship. The University's involvement is also excluded from this as long as the student's IP is not generated from employment with the University or paid from funding granted to the University.
Students are responsible for submitting a final report to their advisor at the end of the experience. The internship sponsor is asked to review and approve the final report before submission to ensure that the student fulfilled the objectives of the program.
Eligibility and Application Process
- Junior and Senior undergraduate majors in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, or Chemical Biology.
- The College will list your available projects on this website.
- Student applications are collected and compiled by the College of Chemistry. They are then shared with you to enable you to select the student of your choice.
- The College will review each student’s transcript and credits towards graduation to determine the impact of participating on the student’s expected graduation date.
- Students are asked to submit a 500-word statement of intent, resume, one reference letter and a work sample based on the specifics of the internship the student is applying for, and must be available for an interview. Students should be evaluated for their maturity and evidence of ambition, work ethic, and motivation.
- Students may choose to enroll in an independent research course for credit while participating but are not required to do so.
- Students may apply to no more than two projects per semester and may participate in only one.
Fall Project Listings
We are currently listing projects for Fall of 2023. If your company has an available project, please send the below information through the Partner Intake Form by the date corresponding to the semester of interest.
| Internship Semester | Materials Due by |
| Fall | July 1 |
| Spring | December 1 |
- your contact information
- a brief (~2-sentence) description of the project(s) including location (and whether remote work is possible)
- how many student(s) you are looking for, and the approximate weekly time commitment (for each academic year project)
- any specific type of work sample or other application requirement
- the maximum number of applicants you can screen
- amount of any stipend provided
- we will collect applications and pass them to the company for review shortly after the application deadline; companies will be able to interview applicants before final assignments are made.
- email the above information to: ug_research@berkeley.edu
Summer Internship Listings
Separately, we will advertise any summer internships on our web site, though we will not be involved in the screening process. Send us the same the description and contact information as above for any summer opportunities and we will post them on our website.
Summer interns may be considered for the Fall as a continuing intern but must submit an application to be considered. This ensures fair and equitable access for all students applying.