Student Research

Hands-On Collaborative Research
Summer Research
Hamilton offers its students outstanding opportunities to conduct research in all disciplines. Approximately 120 students receive grants each summer.
Publish & Present
Whether it’s during the academic year or the summer, Hamilton students collaborate with professors on original research. Often their work results in articles published in peer-reviewed journals or in presentations at national conferences.
Student Stories
Research & Discovery
During the academic year and over the summer, Hamilton students put into practice the knowledge and skills learned in the classroom, lab, and studio. Every student graduates having completed a capstone experience, which typically involves significant research or an original artistic creation. Here are some recent examples.

Two Hamilton chemistry students spent part of their summer unraveling a decades-old campus mystery – the true identity of the beloved peonies in Grant Garden. Saunders left behind scant documentation of what species he used to create his world-renowned hybrids. So, John “JP” Hoak ’27, Mark Khairallah ’27, and Biology Professor Wei-Jen Chang are sleuthing for clues not in records, but in DNA.

Comp. Sci. Students, Helmuth Study Cutting Edge Large Language Models
Large language models (LLMs) have been at the forefront of the zeitgeist ever since publicly available AI programs like OpenAI’s ChatGPT burst onto the scene. Three Hamilton College computer science majors are spending their summer researching this cutting-edge technology alongside Professor Thomas Helmuth ’09.

Sr. Fellow Robinson '25 Examines Community Reactions to Climate Change
Connecting distant destinations with local lands, senior fellow Clare Robinson spent her final year at Hamilton delving into community reactions to climate change and environmental policy.