Summer Undergraduate Research in Geoscience and Engineering Program

Are you interested in climate change research? Using the latest technology to monitor crop yields in Tanzania? Creating computer simulations of tsunamis? Are you an Earth sciences major or a physics major starting to explore the Earth sciences? Apply to SURGE.

We welcome students from the geosciences and from other STEM majors to apply for this research opportunity. 

SURGE 2022 Applications are closed for summer 2022.

View the list of projects for SURGE 2022 here. We will be updating projects continuously until January 25th. 

SURGE supports diverse perspectives in the Earth, Environmental Sciences, and Energy Resources Engineering. Because we all live on this planet.    

SURGE provides undergraduates from a U.S. institution the opportunity to gain mentored research experience at Stanford University in the Earth and environmental sciences, as well as in energy resource engineering, during the eight-week period of June 20, 2022 to August 12, 2022.  We especially encourage students who are seeking a formal research experience for the first time to participate.

The underlying philosophy of SURGE is to train students by creating a supportive and rigorous work environment. We set high expectations for our scholars: To prepare them for a potential career in the field of geoscience and engineering, while ensuring that they get the most from their stay at Stanford. We are committed to advancing a culture of inclusion, respect, accessibility, and empowerment for all the program participants.

Each SURGE scholar is matched with a faculty member from the School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences and has the opportunity to work in a research group or laboratory. The scholar is assigned an interesting and challenging project from a broad range of Earth science and engineering topics that are accessible within the eight-week summer period.

SURGE also includes workshops on applying to graduate school and understanding geoscience and engineering careers. The program culminates with a research symposium at Stanford, where scholars present results from their summer projects to faculty, mentors, and colleagues. Please check out the SURGE brochure for a snapshot of our program. SURGE is a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site funded by the National Science Foundation and Stanford Earth. 

Funding for this REU site is provided by the National Science Foundation’s Division of Earth Sciences located in Alexandria, VA. Award Abstract # 1852022. The NSF contact for this program is Aisha Morris. NSF does not handle REU applications; please contact each REU site directly for application information. For more information about the NSF-REU programs visit: https://beta.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/research-experiences-undergraduates-reu