At Portland State, research isn't just for faculty and graduate students, and it's not restricted to a science lab. No matter what you're studying, you will find research opportunities that will challenge and excite you.
Work alongside faculty
Research opportunities abound, but finding the right fit for your interests may require some effort. Here are some suggestions for starting your search:
- Get to know professors and teaching assistants in your classes. Talk with them after class or in office hours to find out what kind of research they're doing. They may be looking for a research assistant or be aware of other opportunities.
- Email a professor whose research interests you. A simple look at a professor's profile will tell you if you're interested in the research they do. Send them an email to try to set up a meeting where you can talk to them about your career goals, major, research interests and hear more about their work.
- Attend weekly lectures and colloquia. Many of our departments host seminars; you never know what topic or speaker might spark your interest.
- Talk to a department advisor. Department advisors often have knowledge of research opportunities. Ask if your department has an honors program where you can pursue an independent research project with a faculty mentor.
- Explore research programs:
- BUILD EXITO is an undergraduate research training program that supports students on their pathway to become scientific researchers.
- Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) supports students from racially underrepresented groups pursuing a bachelor's degree in STEM fields by providing research, internships and other professional development opportunities.
- McNair Scholars pairs first-generation, low-income and under-represented undergraduates who want to pursue PhDs with faculty mentors to conduct, present and publish research.
Take a class with research at its core
Course-based undergraduate research experiences, or CUREs, invite whole classes of undergrads to address a research question or problem that is of real interest to the instructor or the broader disciplinary research community. Take a look at what CUREs we're offering each term.
Spend your summer doing research
Consider participating in a summer research experience program — either right here at PSU or at another school in the country.
- Research Experiences for Undergraduates, or REUs for short, can be anywhere between 6 and 10 weeks long and are often paid. You can find a REU in pretty much every field of science. It gives you a chance to meet new people, dive deeper into an area of interest or explore a new one and get hands-on research experience. At PSU, we have three REU sites:
- Ft. Vancouver Public Archaeology Field School, a long-running partnership between Portland State, Washington State University Vancouver, the National Park Service Regional Office and Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, allows students to learn archaeological field and lab techniques in one of the most important sites in the Pacific Northwest.
- Geology offers a summer field camp (G 481), where students complete 64 hours of field work doing geologic mapping in sedimentary and volcanic rocks or metamorphic and plutonic rocks. Prerequisites: G 485