Quantitative Biology Research Experience for Undergraduates

The Quantitative Biology Research Experience for Undergraduates (QBREU) offers summer research fellowships to undergraduates. This program allows undergraduate students majoring in biology, engineering, mathematics, statistics, or physics to participate in hands-on laboratory or computational research that applies mathematical concepts and methodology to understanding mechanisms in biology. If selected, leadership will match you with a faculty mentor.

Participants will be encouraged to attend activities such as weekly workshops covering communication, design, ethics, teamwork, and entrepreneurship; a day trip to a local museum or Argonne National Laboratory; a presentation on applying to graduate school; and other cohort outings.

The 2024 program to be hosted in person on the Evanston campus with program activities at the National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in downtown Chicago. Both computational and biological projects will be available. 

The new program started in 2022 and is supported fully by the NSF Quantitative Biology REU Site at Northwestern University. This version will continue in Summer 2024. A previous version of this program ran from 2019-2022 with support from the NSF-Simons Center for Quantitative Biology (CQuB) and the Northwestern Research Training Grant in Quantitative Biological Modeling (RTG). Alumni from all programs are listed on this website.

Stipend

Participants in the program receive a taxable stipend of approximately $4,500.00.  Housing and dinner on campus are supported by this program. Travel to/from the program is reimbursable for up to $350.00.

Eligibility

To be considered for this program, applicants must currently be enrolled as a freshman, sophomore, or junior with demonstrated interests in the life sciences, engineering, mathematics, statistics, or physics. Open to US citizens or permanent residents.

Expectations

• Participants are expected to spend 37.5 hours a week researching with a participating faculty member’s research group for 8 weeks between June 17 – August 9, 2024. (Dates can be flexible to accommodate your university/college’s spring term/quarter end date and fall term/quarter start date.)
• Participants must agree not to take on any other research grants for any part of the eight-week period, and must not be enrolled in courses for any part of that period.
• Participants must present at the undergraduate research symposium held the last Friday of the program. Presentation options are a 15-minute slide presentation, a 3-minute recorded video, or a poster presentation. Symposium will include program directors, investigators, scholars, and research group members; family and friends are welcome to attend.