Quantitative Biology Undergraduate Summer Research Program
The Quantitative Biology Undergraduate Summer Research Program offers summer research fellowships to undergraduates. This program allows undergraduate students majoring in biology, engineering, mathematics, statistics, or physics to participate in hands-on laboratory or computational research that applies mathematical concepts and methodology to understanding mechanisms in biology. If selected, leadership will match you with a faculty mentor.
Participants will be encouraged to attend activities such as, weekly workshops covering communication, design, ethics, teamwork, and entrepreneurship; a day trip to a local museum or Argonne National Laboratory; a presentation on applying to graduate school; and other cohort outings.
The 2023 program will be hosted in person on the Evanston campus. Students must be vaccinated to participate in person. Both computational and biological projects will be available.
This program is supported by the NSF-Simons Center for Quantitative Biology and the Northwestern Research Training Grant in Quantitative Biological Modeling.
Prize for Undergraduate Research in Quantitative Biology
The NSF-Simons Center for Quantitative Biology’s Prize for Undergraduate Research in Quantitative Biology recognizes outstanding undergraduate research in quantitative biology. Finalists will be invited to present a poster describing their research at the NSF-Simons Center for Quantitative Biology Annual Conference. Awardees will be chosen based on the content and presentation of their research projects.
During the conference, participants will have an opportunity to engage in intimate big-picture science discussions with quantitative biology faculty, attend a series of talks on cutting-edge research, and learn about the interdisciplinary collaborative process.
This prize is sponsored by the Northwestern University Department of Molecular Biosciences and the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems.
PRIZE: 1st: $1000; 2nd: $750; 3rd: $500
ELIGIBILITY: Undergraduates who have actively participated in quantitative biology research and have a demonstrated interest in pursuing a Ph.D. Must be currently enrolled as an undergraduate at the time of the conference.
Quantitative Biology NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates
High-throughput technologies have transformed biological research into a data-intensive science and provided exciting opportunities to investigate living processes in unprecedented detail. Yet making sense of these data has proven challenging due to the sheer volume and variety of the measurements, as well as the underlying complexity of biological systems. Developing models that are mechanistically insightful—not just accurate—requires a new generation of researchers working at the interface between mathematical disciplines (including mathematics, physics, and computer science) and the life sciences. The QBREU, the Quantitative Biology REU site at Northwestern University trains the next generation of researchers to develop and apply mathematical and computational models to address basic and applied biological problems ranging from molecular to population biology. QBREU leverages Northwestern’s considerable strengths in interdisciplinary research, including the community created by the Center for Quantitative Biology at Northwestern University [CQuB], to provide students a rich and authentic research experience.
