»»ÆÞ¾ãÀÖ²¿ is sponsoring several full-time summer research positions for »»ÆÞ¾ãÀÖ²¿ undergraduate students. The following programs are available to students, along with the potential for other programs that we may find aimed to support specialized areas or specific groups of students:
Summer research students will work with a »»ÆÞ¾ãÀÖ²¿ professor to gain skills and knowledge related to research. Students who receive an award, will be employed as a summer research assistant.For inquires about the Undergraduate Summer Research Awards, please contact Vanisa.Omicevic@smu.ca
Please ensure that you have read the instructions below and have compiled all required documents before you submit your application.Eligibility:
Application Deadline: February 21, 2025
Application Requirements:
*Application Form* - This competition is now closed.
Note: Position selection will involve a review of your discussion/essay, your background and resume, and your academic record at »»ÆÞ¾ãÀÖ²¿. Our goal is to select students in as many different research areas as possible from across all University Faculties: Arts, Business, and Science.
All applicants will be contacted after the decisions have been finalized. Please allow 4-6 weeks for the review and award selection process.
Note: If a special is provided by NSERC to an NSERC USRA recipient, SMU policy is that 50% of the awarded supplement will be provided to the student awardee as an additional employment payment, and 50% will be used to refund the research grant fund which provided the necessary salary top-up as part of the initial USRA award.
If there is a professor you are interested in working with who doesn’t appear on the list below, you are encouraged to contact that professor, and have the professor contact Vanisa.Omicevic@smu.ca if they want to be added to the list.
Although not required, students are encouraged to contact the professor(s) they are considering as a potential supervisor from the list below. When completing the application you may select up to two potential supervisors.
Marisa BrookLinguistics / English- The student will likely help build a database of speech samples from English in Halifax and/or the Maritimes more broadly.Blake BrownGun Control - The student will provide research support for a project examining the history of gun control in Canada.Gavin FridellFair Trade- The student will undertake a review and stocktaking of fair trade on SMU campus and provide a report for the university community.Heather GreenNova Scotia Mining History- This project examines the environmental and occupational health and safety history of black lung disease among coal mine workers in Nova Scotia.Karen HarperPlant Ecology / Biogeography- Field work studying vegetation in NS forests, or data and remote sensing projects.Eric HenryLinguistic Anthropology- Digitizing, transcribing, and coding narrative data for an ongoing project on local Nova Scotia dialects.Margaret MacDonaldThe Study of Religion/Education and the Expansion of early Christianity in the Roman World- Students will conduct research on literary practices, oral teaching, and opportunities for learning tied to rituals and everyday activities. The research project will involve bibliographical research and the identification of relevant textual and visual evidence from the ancient world.Sara MaltonNineteenth-Century English Literature and Culture/Charles Dickens- "Reading Literature Today” Series: project management, bibliographic research, overviews of critical literature on topics such race and empire; religion; the industrial city.Patricia MatsumotoGeography / History- The student will conduct research on Black communities in Nova Scotia, focusing on Africville. The methodology includes analyzing historical census data, exploring media files produced by the Loyalist Connection Creative Society, and creating web maps using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Emma McClureFeminist Philosophy- Student will work on research related to philosophy of film and pop culture, and develop outreach events associated with the “Let’s Go to the SMUvies” series. Paulo RaveccaFar-right politics in the Americas- Responsibilities will include conducting a literature review and assisting with the collection of social media posts from platforms such as X and Facebook, the transcription and organization of speeches, interviews, and public appearances, and the management of long-form texts, including books, manifestos, and public statements.Sveva Savelli Languages and Cultures / Mediterranean Archaeology- Assisting in processing artifacts, editing and organizing documentation from the archaeological excavation at the Oenotrian-Greek site of Incoronata "greca" (Italy) (8-6 c. BCE).Evangelia TastsoglouInternational migration and immigration, Gender, Citizenship, and Violence - The project available is on various immigrant and refugee groups’ representations in Canadian news media accessed through digital newspaper data (Globe and Mail): issues of desirability and “deservingness”; advocacy and humanitarianism; and debates around selection policies. Danika van ProosdijCoastal Habitat Restoration- Real world applications of nature-based climate adaptation techniques and habitat restoration in sandy systems (beneficial re-use of dredge material) and the Bay of Fundy (Managed dyke realignment).Lyndan WarnerHistory of the Family, Visual Culture and the Digital Humanities- The student assistant will research examples of visual culture such as paintings, needlework and sculpture across Europe and colonial North America and implement that research into an open access format for the public through ArcGIS Storymaps and a website.
Colleen Barber Avian Behavioural Ecology Research - We study mate choice, reproductive strategies and parental investment in songbirds, focusing on European Starlings. This position involves fieldwork, mainly on the campus of »»ÆÞ¾ãÀÖ²¿.
Christa BrosseauChemistry - Dr. Brosseau's research interests are focused on the development of nanoscale sensors for medical diagnostics and environmental monitoring. Project Description: The Student will conduct innovative exploratory research in the field of nanoscale plasmonics, and will focus on the fabrication of a novel biosensor for healthcare application. Margherita CameranesiClinical, Community, and Health Psychology - The student will work on a qualitative project that is examining mental health and resilience in marginalized youth.
Erin CameronGlobal Change Ecology- Conducting field and laboratory research on how global change affects earthworm invasions and/or soil biodiversity in Atlantic Canada, or assisting with data syntheses on soil biodiversity. Website: Jim CameronSocial Psychology- Research on how sense of meaning in life is related to group attachments (social identity). Linda CampbellEnvironmental Science - Ongoing research programs for BIOL, ENVS, GEOL and GEOG students all centre around 150-year old historical gold mine tailings contaminated ecosystems in Nova Scotia: (1) Ecotoxicology and environmental impacts, (2) Mineralogy, speciation and geological composition, (3) GIS and mapping of historical and modern landscapes impacted by gold mining. More information: Patrick CarolanCognitive Neuroscience- Projects examining emotion, attention, and/or attitudes and biases toward sexual violence survivors and perpetrators.
David ChiassonMolecular Biology - Laboratory research to investigate the transcriptional regulation of symbiotic gene expression.
Greg ChristianNuclear Astrophysics / Structure- Students will analyze data from particle accelerators, perform Monte Carlo simulations of complex detector setups, and/or work on laboratory-based detector development projects, all with the aim of studying fundamental nuclear structure and the reactions powering the stars and driving synthesis of the elements.Jason ClyburneChemistry / Synthetic Chemistry - TBANicole ConradCognitive & Developmental Psychology- Students will work on projects related to literacy development and how children learn to read. Students will participate in research design, creation of stimuli, data collection with children and/or adults, data analyses, and/or writing scientific reports.Anne Dalziel Evolutionary Physiology / Fish Physiology- Students will help to test how freshwater tolerance evolves in stickleback or study the factors influencing hybridization rate and direction in killifishes. This work will involve collecting fish from the field, caring for fish at SMU, studying fish metabolic rates and salinity preferences and potentially conducting molecular and biochemical analyses in the lab.Ivana DamjanovAstrophysics, The Evolution of Galaxies and Their Surroundings- Be among the first to work on the datasets from Euclid, the most recently launched space telescope, and investigate how the changes that galaxies undergo over billions of years of cosmic time depend on the density of their cosmic neighbourhood.Arla DayOccupational Health Psychology- Understanding the organizational supports and constraints in fostering psychologically healthy workplaces.Jane FergusonPhysical Chemistry- Project description: Students will develop and use innovative methods to measure thermophysical properties of molten salt mixtures for the development of clean energy sources.
Luigi Gallo High-Energy Astrophysics - Black holes, active galaxies: analyzing data of supermassive black holes collected with space-based X-ray telescopes.Ellie GoudPlant Functional Ecology- Plant ecology, evolution, and habitat restoration. How plants respond to environmental challenges, such as water limitation, salinity, acidity, pollution, and climate change. Summer 2025 position to study plant responses to metal contamination, with relevance for wetland restoration, in an ongoing experiment on campus. This position would also involve lab work and field work in Nova Scotia as part of the larger Goud lab research team. Lab website: . Jacob HanleyGeology / Ore Deposit Geoscience- The student will develop novel exploration criteria for critical metal deposits in pegmatites in Nova Scotia using innovative chemical microanalytical techniques.Karen HarperPlant Ecology / Biogeography- Field work studying vegetation in NS forests, or data and remote sensing projects.
Vincent Hénault-BrunetAstronomy and Physics / Stellar Dynamics- The student will compare state-of-the-art computer simulations of dense star clusters with observations from various telescopes to understand the formation of black holes in these systems.Mengjun HuThree-way Data Analytics, Granular Computing, Explainable Artificial Intelligence- The student will assist in research on three-way data analysis approaches in continual learning.
Somayeh KafaieComplex Networks, Knowledge Graphs, and Bioinformatics- Assisting research on constructing knowledge graphs and applying explainable AI techniques for addressing health related issues.Rituparna KanungoExperimental Nuclear Physics and Nuclear Astrophysics - Students in our research team work on making exciting new fundamental discoveries with rare isotopes in the universe. Work involves data analysis and simulation programming, working in world-leading accelerator facilities with radiation detectors and electronics.Stavros KonstantinidisMathematics and Computing Science / Limits of Algorithms and Approximate Solutions to Hard Algorithmic Problems- Project 1: Investigate how large language models deal with algorithmically hard problems like regular expression equivalence, or task scheduling. Project 2: Write software to assist people in creating timetables.Mitja MastnakMathematics and Computing Science / Linear Algebra and Abstract Algebra - The student will assist in research in the area of simultaneous triangularization of collections of matrices or in the research in the area of Hopf algebras. Both projects can be combined by writing code in the computer algebra package Sage.Jason MasudaChemistry / Chemical Synthesis - Pushing Nature’s limits to make new chemical bonds – using state-of-the-art methods and analysis techniques, students will make exciting, new molecules to explore the limits of what Nature will allow. Adel MerabetEngineering- Project: Investigation of technologies for waste management and recycling with integration of renewable energy in the process. This project investigates the management and recycling of different waste types and technologies involved in these processes. It reviews technology and innovation solutions for waste management with integration of renewable energy for an eco-friendly environment. Jiju Poovancheri Computer Vision / Deep Learning - Development of innovative AI applications, such as Deep Dream and neural style transfer, for enhancing real-world 3D scans, and assist in the LiDAR scanning of physical spaces and objects.Cory PyeComputational Chemistry- The student will use computers to calculate energies, structures, and vibrational frequencies of systems relevant to aqueous solution chemistry.James RickardsMathematics & Computing Science / Number Theory- The student will investigate number theory, through studying Apollonian circle packings or related objects.Marcin SawickiAstronomy & Physics / Form