The mentors for SURF 2026 will be published in late January.
Mentors interested in SURF 2026 should complete the brief registration form by Wednesday, January 21st, 2026 which includes a description of potential research/design/creative work topics and any student qualification requirements.
When submitting an application with a mentor on this list, select that you want to matched with a mentor on this list. Applicants will then be asked to indicate their preferred mentors in their applications, and include motivation for their selection.
Note: Potential mentors are not limited to this list. Applicants can apply with any Rice mentor who will provide support in a summer research project. Applicants applying with a mentor not on this list must receive mentor approval prior to submitting an application.
2025 Mentors
Mentors on this list have indicated willingness to host a SURF Fellow for Summer 2025. Click on their name to read more about the research areas and potential projects of previous SURF projects.
Engineering
- Dr. Raudel Avila Mechanical Engineering
- Dr. Guha Balakrishnan Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Diana Barr (Drs. George Lu & Richard Bouchard) Bioengineering
- Cesar Andres Cardenas Alvarado Statistics
- Ruidi Chang (Dr. Hanjie Chen) Computer Science
- Dr. Elyse Chase Mechanical Engineering
- Dr. Hanjie Chen Computer Science
- Katherine Chen (Dr. Kevin McHugh) Bioengineering
- Mingshi Chen (Dr. Joseph Young) Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Matt Cheung (Drs. Ashok Veeraraghavan & Guha Balakrishnan) Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Chunyuan Deng (Dr. Hanjie Chen) Computer Science
- Hossein Gazmeh (Dr. Xinwu Qian) Civil & Environmental Engineering
- Dr. Bezawit Getachew Civil & Environmental Engineering
- Viraj Ghosh (Dr. Julea Vlassakis) Bioengineering
- Dr. Daniel Harrington Bioengineering
- Dr. Shengxi Huang Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Dr. Yuxuan Huang WaTER Institute
- Sarah Jimenez (Drs. Camila Hochman-Mendez & Jane Grande-Allen) Bioengineering
- Dr. Scott Keene Materials Science & NanoEngineering
- Dr. Shane King Mechanical Engineering
- Dr. Edward Knightly Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Dr. Yong Lin Kong Mechanical Engineering
- Thomas Kutcher (Dr. Nicole Provenza) Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Dr. Xinjie Lan Statistics
- Dr. Alyssa LaPole Computational Applied Mathematics & Operations Research
- Dr. Wanze Li Civil & Environmental Engineering
- Dr. Beatriz Mayol Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Dr. Larissa Novelino Civil & Environmental Engineering
- Dr. Juyoung Oh Materials Science & NanoEngineering
- Dr. Tirthak Patel Computer Science
- Lauren Peterson (Dr. Momona Yamagami) Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Dr. Daniel Preston Mechanical Engineering
- Dr. Xinwu Qian Civil & Environmental Engineering
- Dr. Vanessa Sanchez Mechanical Engineering
- Jake Schladenhauffen (Dr. Omid Veiseh) Bioengineering
- Dr. Rebecca Schreib Computer Science
- Dr. Juliane Sempionatto Electrical & Computer Engineering, Bioengineering
- Dr. John Seymour Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Dr. Lauren Stadler Civil & Environmental Engineering
- Yiran Sun (Dr. Osama R. Mawlawi) Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Dr. Christina Tringides Materials Science & NanoEngineering
- Madelyn Whitaker (Dr. Pedro Alvarez) Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
- Dr. Denizhan Yavas Mechanical Engineering
- Dr. Zhongyuan Zhao Electrical & Computer Engineering
Humanities
- Dr. Natasha Bowdoin Art
- Dr. Judith Brunton Religion
- Sophie Randolph Liu Idea Lab for Innovation & Entrepreneurship
- Dr. Lora Wildenthal History, Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality
- Dr. Fay Yarbrough History
Jones School of Business
- Dr. Jung Youn Lee Marketing
- Dr. Mallika Pung Finance
Natural Sciences
- Dr. Darin Acosta Physics & Astronomy
- Dr. Kushal Bagchi Chemistry
- Dr. Sahar Bakhshian Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences
- Dr. Zachary Ball Chemistry
- Maryam Faghihi (Dr. Scott Egan) BioSciences
- Dr. Andre Izidoro Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences
- Dr. Matthew Jones Chemistry
- Dr. Sven Kranz BioSciences
- Dr. Wei Li Physics & Astronomy
- Wesley Leung (Dr. Julea Vlassakis) Applied Physics
- Dr. Edison Liang Physics & Astronomy
- Dr. Yuan Ma Chemistry
- Dr. Jared Marx-Kuo Mathematics
- Dr. Marcos de Moraes BioSciences
- Dr. Quanbing Mou Chemistry
- Dr. Guido Pagano Physics & Astronomy
- Dr. Amanda Perkins-Ball Kinesiology
- Dr. Volker Rudolf BioSciences
- Dr. Julia Saltz BioSciences
- Katie West (Dr. Julia Saltz) BioSciences
- Dr. Noemi Vergopolan Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences
- Dr. Pablo Yepes Physics & Astronomy
- Dr. Samantha Yruegas Chemistry
Social Sciences
- Dr. Corey Abramson Sociology
- Dr. Kirsten Adam Psychological Sciences
- Dr. Dogus Aktan Political Science
- Dr. Brielle Bryan Sociology
- Dr. Marc Dudey Economics
- Dr. Hossam Elsherbiny Center for Languages and Intercultural Communication
- Dr. Kenneth Evans Baker Institute
- Dr. Ilana Gershon Anthropology
- Dr. Victoria Massie Anthropology
- Kimberly Minda Global Affairs
- Dr. Tianjun Sun Psychological Sciences
- Dr. Tori Thomas Kinder Institute