Research Facilities
A Campus Tailor-Made for Research
Discovery is woven into the fabric of our campus. We have cultivated a culture of hands-on inquiry where research is an immersive, collaborative, and accessible experience. This exploration unfolds across a landscape of facilities and resources designed to inspire creativity and innovation.
F&M’s Vivarium is a non-invasive behavioral facility housing a diverse range of species—including
rodents, reptiles, birds, fish, and nonhuman primates—that supports student-focused
learning and scientific research. We are one of the only institutions in the United
States offering undergraduate students direct access to onsite nonhuman primates through
an established program built around training, enrichment, and animal caretaking. Each
year, more than 150 F&M students work with faculty and Vivarium staff to gain hands-on
experience within the fields of positive reinforcement training, welfare and enrichment,
best-practice animal caretaking, and behavioral observations and research. F&M is home to a shared high-performance computing cluster—a rare asset for a small
liberal arts college. Used for AI and computing research, F&M’s shared cluster enables
faculty and students to complete research more quickly, allows researchers to scale
up their research and look at solving larger problems, and facilitates more student
research and student/faculty collaboration. The William M. Hackman Physical Sciences Laboratories is a cornerstone of scientific
inquiry at F&M. With six instructional laboratories and 12 student/faculty research
laboratories, you’ll research side-by-side with expert faculty, gaining hands-on experience
with state-of-the-art instrumentation usually reserved for graduate-level institutions. F&M’s greenhouse sits atop the Barshinger Life Sciences & Philosophy Building (LSP)
on campus. In the greenhouse, you can learn how to plant, water, fertilize, trim,
transplant, and assist in pest control of a variety of plants. Many of these plants
are used in F&M courses, but some are also used to enliven College events, such as
Commencement. The Joseph R. Grundy Observatory provides exciting opportunities to explore the universe
right on the F&M campus. The Grundy Observatory features an 1884 vintage 11-inch Alvan
Clark refracting telescope and a 16-inch Boller & Chivens classical Cassegrain reflecting
telescope. Housed in the Barshinger Life Sciences & Philosophy Building, the Development and
Experience (DAX) Center is home to two innovative child development research labs.
Students can apply to become research assistants in these labs at any point in their
college careers. As a student researcher, you would learn how to recruit and schedule
participants, serve as experimenters in running empirical studies, assist in data
analysis and interpretation, and become familiar with relevant psychological literature.
F&M is home to the Center for Opinion Research, which is widely recognized as one
of the nation’s foremost survey research organizations. The Center for Opinion Research
publishes the Franklin & Marshall College Poll, the oldest statewide public opinion
poll exclusively directed and produced in Pennsylvania, and one of the top surveys
in the United States. The Center for Opinion Research actively engages F&M students,
offering you the unique opportunity to contribute to and better understand the work
behind an effective survey of voters’ opinions. You can assist with data analysis,
reporting, survey question development, and more. Our home city of Lancaster is a living laboratory, featuring abundant research and
learning opportunities across a variety of disciplines. You can study Lancaster’s
flourishing agricultural landscape, dive into the ecological health of the Susquehanna
River watershed and the Chesapeake Bay, investigate the city’s historical roots, examine
city health and wellness challenges, and much more. Within The Barshinger Life Sciences & Philosophy Building (LSP), you’ll find an environment
designed for deep inquiry into both the natural world and the human condition. LSP
features 12 student-faculty research laboratories, a greenhouse, a vivarium, and professional-grade
research equipment, empowering you to research side-by-side with faculty and convert
theory into practice. Located in the heart of campus, the Phillips Museum of Art is a vibrant engine for
cultural, artistic, and intellectual inquiry at F&M. The Phillips Museum serves as
a living laboratory where you can learn about art history, curating and exhibiting
works of art, and the role art plays in shaping world cultures. Research opportunities
draw from the permanent collection, changing exhibitions, and visiting artists, often
culminating in research papers, exhibitions, digital projects, and public programs. The College Library is a nexus of intellectual activity on campus, connecting people
and resources to innovate, create, and share knowledge. Housed in two locations—the
Shadek-Fackenthal Library and the Martin Library of the Sciences—the library system
provides access to over 400,000 print volumes and a vast digital landscape of 900,000+
ebooks, 95,000+ streaming films, and hundreds of specialized databases. This comprehensive
collection is designed to be a cornerstone of your research endeavors, offering the
tools you need to bridge the gap between curiosity and scholarly discovery. Archives & Special Collections is a rich repository preserving the visual and written
record of the College alongside rare global treasures. With holdings that span centuries
and subjects — including more than 8,000 rare books and manuscripts; a collection
of F&M student, faculty, and staff scholarship; local historical materials; and more
— you can work side-by-side with archivists to explore unique primary sources and
connect the legacy of the past with the scholarship of the future. At Franklin & Marshall, learning happens by doing. You’ll step beyond the classroom
and into labs, studios, museums, local businesses, natural habitats, and communities
around the world for meaningful experiences in research, internships, volunteering,
and more.Vivarium
Research Computing Cluster
The William M. Hackman Physical Sciences Laboratories
Greenhouse
Joseph R. Grundy Observatory
The Development and Experience (DAX) Center
Center for Opinion Research
Lancaster
The Barshinger Life Sciences & Philosophy Building
Phillips Museum of Art
College Library
Archives & Special Collections
Real-World Learning at F&M