Summer Thesis Awards
Each year MBB awards several Mary Gordon Roberts Fellowships to undergraduates to support research that will contribute to their senior honors theses. Applicants must be juniors or first-semester seniors in an MBB track, or in the MBB secondary field if they are doing MBB-related theses.
Mary Gordon Roberts Fellowships are intended to support living expenses (stipend) and sometimes research expenses. Stipends are normally for full-time, ten-week work on your thesis project.
If you have already received an award that covers all expenses and precludes further funding (for example, PRISE), or if you anticipate no living or other expenses for your project (for example, if your home residence is local), you may apply for a non-stipendiary award. A non-stipendiary Mary Gordon Roberts Fellowship recognizes a high-quality thesis project and can thus be usefully noted in one's resume/CV and on professional/graduate school and employment applications.
Because MBB funds are limited, we recommend that students planning summer thesis research pursue other funding possibilities as well, including the Harvard College Research Program (HCRP), your thesis advisor or her/his laboratory/research program, and in some situations the Faculty Aide Program.
To apply for a Mary Gordon Roberts Fellowship, log onto CARAT (the Common Application for Research and Travel) at https://carat.fas.harvard.edu for forms and instructions. For the MBB award, complete the CARAT form and upload a project proposal, unofficial transcript, and resume. Leave the budget section blank unless you are requesting research support, in which case you should itemize those. Your thesis/research supervisor should also upload a letter of recommendation by the deadline.
Summer 2026 applications for the Mary Gordon Roberts Fellowship are due at noon on Friday, March 13th.
If you anticipate any challenges in meeting this deadline, please contact Shawn Harriman before deadline day. You should also feel free to email any questions about your application material to Shawn.