When most people think of the word “research”, lab coats, rubber gloves, and beakers are what comes to mind. While these items certainly correspond with some areas of research, they hardly encompass all the possibilities. In fact, you can do research in just about–well, anything.
At Yale, it’s pretty easy to get started with research in any field that’s interesting to you, whether it’s biology or economics. Practically all Yale professors are actively working on some type of research, and the first step in getting involved is to just send them an email to see if they’re interested in taking undergraduate assistants.
To give you a sense of just how diverse research really is, I’ve featured a few of my friends. Their stories only scratch the surface of research topics at Yale, but I hope they can inspire your own research journey.
Maya:
Major: Cognitive Science
Research area: My research is in the neuroeconomics and psychology field, and we look at decision making under uncertainty. Specifically, the study I’m doing is about decision making with source conflict.
Lauren:
Major: Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology. I’m also in the 5-Year program at the Yale School of Public Health pursuing an MPH in Chronic Disease Epidemiology
Research area: I’m part of the Lesch Lab at the School of Medicine in the Department of Genetics. My project focuses on the evolution of chromatin state in the mammalian germline and how changes in epigenetic modifications underlies developmental changes over evolutionary time.
Cameron:
Major: Cognitive Science
Research area: With strong research interests at the intersection of computational psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and reinforcement learning, I am currently working in the Action, Computation, and Thinking (ACT) Lab at Yale. Here, I am developing and testing computational models of human behavior.
Fiona:
Major: American Studies and French
Research area: I am doing research under the umbrella of the Gruber Program at Yale Law School. This past spring, I did an annotated bibliography of literature on ectogenesis, the biobag, and artificial wombs: what is the future of this technology and what are its ethical implications?
