Research
Student Research at Colby
A Third of All Students Conduct Research
Travel to Asia with your professor to study the effects of an aging population or collaborate with scientists to tackle the problems of the world’s oceans at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, Maine. Explore opportunities for students to learn by doing—in laboratories, in classrooms, and in the field.
Research Opportunities
Share your scholarly engagement with the Colby community.
CLAS is a celebration of student scholarship. For one day each year, the Colby community comes together to recognize and celebrate students’ many forms of scholarly engagement.
CUSRR is a two-day symposium and retreat in The Forks, Maine, featuring student talks and poster presentations on a wide variety of topics.
Scholar Programs
Pursue your passion with the support you need to make it happen.
Named in honor of Nobel Prize-winning diplomat and civil rights activist Ralph J. Bunche, the Bunche Scholars Program offers a select group of students from all backgrounds exclusive access to leadership development opportunities and grants for independent scholarship, internships, or humanitarian projects.
CAPS is designed for incoming Colby students from groups that traditionally have been underrepresented in the sciences. CAPS provides students with a Colby-funded summer experience, providing hands-on research experiences in biology, chemistry, environmental science, and other natural science disciplines—before the first semester even begins.
Colby’s Presidential Scholars Program offers several benefits to the top students in each incoming class, including the opportunity to work closely with our world-class professors from the moment you arrive on campus, access to a pool of grants to design your own projects, and other opportunities that challenge you to achieve at the highest levels.
The Pulver Science Scholars Program is designed to create a pipeline of the most ambitious and talented students from all backgrounds to pursue research and prepare them to be scientific leaders and innovators. Every Pulver Science Scholar receives funding to have access to at least one research and one internship experience focused on scientific inquiry and discovery before graduation.
The Senior Scholars Program gives students an opportunity to devote significant time to a major project in their final year. Students can earn six credit hours for independent research under the guidance of a faculty tutor. Each senior scholar makes a presentation in the spring, and successful project reports become part of the library’s permanent collection.
Universal Experiences
Explore new opportunities — whether that’s research, fieldwork, internships, creative explorations, or independent projects — around the world.
DavisConnects delivers transformative experiences, provides specialized advising, and fosters world-class connections. This threefold commitment allows students to explore life-changing opportunities while they test and refine their interests.
At Colby students spend January doing just one thing of their choosing. Research in Belize. Shadow an oncologist at a local hospital. Take an internship in Miami. Become an EMT. Make a movie. Try something entirely new.
To thrive in today’s rapidly changing global age, students must be ready to engage meaningfully with today’s world of unprecedented diversity. Colby’s commitment to providing students with quality off-campus academic opportunities has been a longstanding part of its educational philosophy.
Colby Labs
Colby Labs bring together multidisciplinary approaches and partnerships to offer hands-on opportunities to identify and test solutions to the world’s most important challenges.
This Colby Lab connects students from disciplines across the curriculum to organizations focused on environmental sustainability and climate change. Students conduct research on Maine’s coast, lakes, and forests, working closely with faculty to understand changes to complex systems and their far-flung effects.
The Halloran Lab for Entrepreneurship offers a comprehensive suite of training and practical opportunities aimed at preparing Colby students to be effective innovators and entrepreneurs—whether they are creating dynamic new business ventures or improving existing organizations or programs.
This Colby Lab establishes a pipeline for ambitious and talented students from all backgrounds to pursue College-funded research, internship, and global opportunities to prepare for careers in biotechnology, biomedicine, ocean sciences, genomics, and bioinformatics.
The Lyons Arts Lab is a collaborative incubator to create groundbreaking, interdisciplinary work. The lab serves as a creative think tank augmented by industry professionals with the goal of supporting and bringing to life new ideas, concepts, and content developed by Colby students.
Maine as a Lab
Partnerships with world-class institutions such as the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, The Jackson Laboratory, and Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory allow students to gain experience pursuing oceanic, genomic, or biomedical research on the Maine coast.