Volunteer Information
High School Volunteers
We know that many of you in high school are eager to work as junior scientists in collaboration, even if remotely, with professors such as myself (to gain some research experience). We have no capacity to work with such students at this time.
Summer College Interns
Caltech has three programs which bring students to campus for up to 10 weeks in the summer to work full-time in a research group. They are SURF, WAVE, and Amgen. Our group typically hires 1-3 people in these programs (the acceptance rate as a fraction of people who reach out is about ¼). All of these programs expect you to reach out to a sponsoring mentor (called a Principal Investigator or "PI") at the early, unofficial part of the application process. That's around Dec 1 in the year before the summer of internship. Eventually you have to draft a concrete research proposal, typically in mid-February (though deadlines vary across the programs). You will get a lot of help from a student mentor, typically a senior PhD student or Postdoc.
PhD Students
Note: Professor Camerer will not be accepting PhD students needing financial support starting in September 2026.
For prospective PhD students: Unlike many lab science departments, individual faculty members in our Social and Decision Neuroscience and Social Sciences programs do not admit students unilaterally. Applications go to a committee; so please, do not email me directly about a PhD application. If you email me, your email will be directed to the relevant committees.
