Research Opportunities
Students Explore Our Natural World Through Summer Research
Over the summer, Stonehill student researchers advanced science by studying nature for clues that can help us be better stewards of the planet.
Stonehill students participate in highly competitive and prestigious summer research programs, working in university and industry labs across the U.S. and around the world. On campus, students utilize directed studies and independent research opportunities with faculty members to investigate topics ranging from the circulation patterns in the Gulf of Maine to the reproductive morphology and genetics of the invasive wetland plant, purple loosestrife.
Stonehill Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE)
SURE is an opportunity for students who have completed their first year at Stonehill to perform significant, publishable, full-time research under the guidance of and in collaboration with an experienced faculty researcher.
Recent examples
- Hayley Bibaud ’17 worked with Kristi Burkholder, assistant professor of environmental science, to investigate decadal scale changes to the intensity and frequency of snowfall in Massachusetts since the mid-1940s.
- Elaina McDowell ’18 worked with Professor Burkholder to analyze temperature and salinity records collected in the Gulf of Maine in the past 50 years. They were particularly interested in investigating the ways in which the warming of global temperatures has impacted the subsurface environment in this important ecological region.