Research Opportunities

Davidson College is a recognized leader in undergraduate research, scholarship and creative work across academic disciplines.

In addition to research projects that may be integral parts of coursework, students have opportunities to design semester-long independent research courses, conduct thesis projects, collaborate with faculty members on research, and participate in paid summer research internships at Davidson and elsewhere.

Support for research and creative work comes from the college's annual budget and external grants. Summer research programs have also been supported by a variety of sources including The Duke Endowment, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities ICAN program, the Jesse Ball DuPont Foundation, and individual donors. As funding support has increased, the number of students participating in on campus research has grown.

Student does research in neuroscience lab

Student Research Opportunities & Funding

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.

Prof. Mark Barsoum in lab pipetting into test tube

Faculty Research Opportunities & Funding

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.

Featured Funding Opportunities

Stories of Research at Davidson

Ellie Rice with monarch butterfly on her nose

Biology

Ellie Rice '25

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.

a group of three white women smiling in a theater

Theatre

Olivia Harper ’23

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

a young white woman with curly reddish brown hair

Environmental Studies

Grace Rooker '24

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.

a young white male wears a straw hat while standing in front of an Egyptian pyramid and sphinx

History

Brody Bassett ’25

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.

an old church on an island surrounded by boats in a river

Sociology

Breila Fuller ’23

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.

Physics

Mallory Justis ’24, Branner D'Amato ’24 and Pat Kielb ’24

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.

Biology

Steffi Coates ’23

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.

Chemistry

Jacquelline Nyakunu ’26

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.

Research Facilities

Davidson Colleges provides state-of-the-art research facilities for student-faculty research in the sciences, social sciences and humanities with top of the line laboratories, instrumentation, student studio space and soundproof music spaces. Explore a sampling of our on-campus research facilities.

E. Craig Wall Jr. Academic Center Baker-Watt Science Complex Katherine and Tom Belk Visual Arts Center Sloan Music Center Cunningham Theatre Center Jay Hurt Hub for Innovation and Entrepreneurship