Animated gif of 70 undergraduate students outdoors, wearing matching light red T-shirts, waving up at the camera.

2023 Stanford Bio-X Undergraduate Summer Research Program participants.

About the Stanford Bio-X Undergraduate Summer Research Program (USRP):

Introducing undergraduates to the excitement of interdisciplinary research at the frontiers of knowledge is essential for training a new generation to participate in discovery. The Stanford Bio-X Undergraduate Summer Research Program (Bio-X USRP) began in 2006 and has provided 926 undergraduate students with the opportunity to conduct hands-on and virtual research, build awareness of interdisciplinary areas, and network with Bio-X faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and each other. This formative experience influences their subsequent work at Stanford and beyond.

Photo of Pitch Johnson with a young student, standing at the student's scientific poster and smiling during discussion.

Donor Pitch Johnson with one of the Undergraduate Summer Research Program participants he sponsored.

In previous years, Bio-X has provided workshops to train students in a variety of research-related skills needed to work in a laboratory. These include reading and analyzing manuscripts, gaining the ability to formulate scientific questions, learning to design and set up experiments, preparing and presenting posters, and more. The students have also taken Health & Safety courses and learned about proper Personal Protection Equipment (PPE). During the summer quarter, not only do they receive a stipend that gives them the invaluable opportunity to do full-time research for ten weeks, but they also learn from Stanford faculty members during the weekly Undergraduate Research Talks.

In 2020 and 2021, Bio-X pivoted to support students both in-person and virtually, engaging them in highly educational virtual programming such as  journal clubs, peer share sessions, and wet lab technique training. Under the guidance of their mentors, Stanford Bio-X USRP students have conducted hands-on laboratory research as well as virtual research, thereby continuing to develop a multitude of skills, learning how to carry out experiments and overcoming challenges that cannot be anticipated in a classroom environment.

Group photo of 2018 students showing them all wearing gray shirts with their arms around each other's shoulders.

A unique component of the program, the Undergraduate Research Talks, which are given by the faculty mentors of our student awardees, expose students to a variety of scientific fields and enrich their summer research experience. This is a unique opportunity for students to hear more about the broad range of research within Stanford, to meet faculty in a variety of scientific fields, and to network with each other as potential future collaborators and colleagues.

At the conclusion of the program, students present the results of the research they had conducted during the program. In addition to the opportunity to network with colleagues, faculty members, and even professionals in other fields during the event, previous Stanford Bio-X USRP students have also mentioned that the preparation process was an extremely useful experience.

In 2023, with guidance and support from Stanford Bio-X, their Stanford faculty mentors, and their research labs, the 70 stellar undergraduates for the 2023 cohort undertook full-time research – many of them for the first time – in the labs of Stanford faculty. 77 Faculty, students, and staff from 35 departments and the Stanford Bio-X Institute contributed their time and effort to the talks, workshops, journal clubs, and other events that enriched the 19th year of the Stanford Bio-X Undergraduate Summer Research Program with the goal of creating a vigorous, valuable, and fulfilling in-person research experience to fast track the sharpening of students’ skills and techniques.

Group photo of 2017 students in red shirts, bouncing a huge white ball with Bio-X logos on its sides. 

Apply

Applications for the 2024 summer cycle of the Bio-X USRP have closed. Applications for the 2025 cycle will open in Fall 2024.



MEET OUR USRP PARTICIPANTS View the 2023 Stanford Bio-X USRP brochure


 

Undergraduate Summer Research Program Brochures:

2022 Stanford Bio-X USRP 2021 Stanford Bio-X USRP 2020 Stanford Bio-X USRP
2019 Stanford Bio-X USRP 2018 Stanford Bio-X USRP 2017 Stanford Bio-X USRP
2016 Stanford Bio-X USRP 2015 Stanford Bio-X USRP 2014 Stanford Bio-X USRP
2013 Stanford Bio-X USRP 2012 Stanford Bio-X USRP 2011 Stanford Bio-X USRP
2010 Stanford Bio-X USRP 2009 Stanford Bio-X USRP Watch videos of the talks!