Research Opportunities

Faculty members integrate original research into the classroom and encourage students to join their research teams through the academic year or summer. Through this collaboration, students and faculty contribute to the growing body of knowledge in a wide variety of fields.

Whether designing apps for sports ranking or constructing bacterial computers, Davidson faculty are solving important problems with their bodies of research. Over 50% of our faculty have published, showed or performed original work for a range of audiences beyond Davidson.

With support from the DRI and mentor Prof. Scott Villa, Rice investigated whether wing patterns influence monarch butterfly mate choice and behavior, research that has further implications into how monarch populations may diverge and become reproductively isolated.

Harper spent a week in Berlin attending various theatre productions and interviewing German dramaturgs as part of her thesis on Austrian playwright Elfriede Jelinek. 

Working on her senior capstone in the environmental studies department, Rooker spent the summer in Kenya collecting data on the ecological impact of small scale gold mining on stream ecosystems.

With support from Prof. Rebecca Joubin in the Arab Studies Department, Bassett immersed himself in the Arabic language while interning at the American Chamber of Commerce in Cairo, Egypt. 

With mentorship from her thesis advisor in German Studies, Fuller dug into her independent research on memory during a week-long spring break trip to Berlin. Working in a German-Jewish archive, she investigated how we understand history through the context of personal archives.

These students designed and built a hydrogen-powered go-kart with mentorship from members of the physics and engineering programs during the school year. They utilized a hydrogen fuel cell that charged the batteries in the electric go-kart.

With mentorship from her German Studies advisor while in Berlin, Coates worked with a vet clinic where she observed a behavioral consult for an iguana, conducted radiographs on a turtle, spayed a ferret, and removed the eye of a guinea pig. 

With supervision from Prof. Cindy Hauser in the chemistry department, Nyakunu spent one summer conducting collaborative research on the effects of daily hookah smoking by identifying and quantifying the pyrazines in shisha using an EEPS machine. 

Using DRI funding, Unice collaborated with Prof. Bersch to examine and compare how populist presidents exert control over administrative states, including a case study on former President Trump and the Environmental Protection Agency.