Undergraduate Research

Rewards of research

The core identity of SUNY Cortland’s Chemistry Department is strong research experience for engaged students.

No matter their major – biochemistry, chemistry or adolescence education – students in the Chemistry Department are invited and encouraged to join faculty members on research in their labs because this work makes them part of the scientific community.

SUNY Cortland offers many outlets for student research, from a summer fellowship program that provides $4,000 awards, an annual campus conference each spring and a fall symposium that focuses exclusively on the sciences, which is shown below.

Participating in research at SUNY Cortland can mean a lot of things; from being the first to synthesize a compound with potential medicinal uses to figuring out the structure of an important enzyme to doing a deep dive into the chemistry of how a particular material works. Students are involved in research in all field of chemistry, and in all stages of the research process. Joining a research lab brings with it the potential of finding your niche in the scientific community, and of finding your community here at Cortland. You’ll gain experience with state-of-the-art instrumentation and techniques, take ownership of your own project while collaborating with others, and become part of a lab “family” of fellow chemists who will challenge and support you.