Princeton Research Day 2026 focuses on undergraduates, taking place in new art museum

The 11th annual installment of Princeton Research Day (PRD) took place on Friday, Feb. 20, with 152 students presenting their research on topics ranging from biomedical devices to the traditional aesthetics of Nassau Street.

Starting this year, PRD exclusively highlights undergraduate research, a departure from previous years when undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and other early-career researchers were able to present. Student presenters were required to register for the event by Feb. 11 and could choose between a poster-only format or a poster supplemented by an interactive or multimedia component.

The majority of presenters opted for the former format, presenting in the Grand Hall of the Princeton University Art Museum across two 45-minute sessions. Students who included other components in their presentation were placed in Tuttle Lecture Hall.

Cris Cogswell, Program Manager for the Office of Undergraduate Research, spoke to The Daily Princetonian about the choice to hold this year’s PRD in the art museum.

“This year, because the art museum has just opened, we really wanted to team up and really bring awareness to the museum, but also to PRD, because it is the first year that it has been reimagined as an undergraduate conference,” Cogswell said.

She also noted heightened interest for this year’s event, stating, “One thing that really blew us away was that we’ve had the biggest number of presenters post-pandemic.”

In addition to the increased student participation, the tally of judges was also significant. “We have about 110 judges,” Cogswell said, “So it’s a very large event.” The PRD website describes that judges include “alumni, faculty, staff, graduate students, postdocs, and community members” to keep with the event’s “interdisciplinary spirit.”

“What’s been so cool is that there’s a broad scope of research happening on campus, and there are people who are working on things that are thinking about how they can benefit society and how they can scale things to do so,” Michael Hegarty, Innovation Program Specialist in the Office of Innovation and PRD judge, said in an interview with the ‘Prince.’

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Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the event, Hegarty noted that students would be judged on the broad applicability of their research. He clarified that he would judge based on whether “the person can engage a general audience and explain to somebody who may not know their discipline … how their research can benefit society.”

PRD recognizes outstanding presentations in select categories, offering awards in the areas of Arts & Humanities, Campus Impact, and Innovation, among others. Cash prizes for these awards range from $500 to $1,500.

Zoya Jadhav ’28, intending to major in molecular biology with minors in gender and sexuality studies as well as global health and health policy, combined her various interests for her presentation at PRD. Her research dealt with barriers to contraceptive use and family planning in rural versus urban areas in Kenya.

“This is a field of study that I have yet to present in, and I really wanted to challenge myself and see how I do presenting in the humanities,” Jadhav explained.

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Jadhav conducted her research with the Mpala Research Center, a Princeton-managed facility based in central Kenya. “I wanted to do something outside of my immediate community here, [in] places where people don’t really necessarily have the access to resources that we do here,” she continued.

While PRD has always taken place in early May, this year’s team decided to shift the date earlier in part to align with Alumni Day in hopes of increasing alumni engagement. Dozens of alumni from the grandparent classes of current undergraduates (’76, ’77, and ’78) could be seen amid the crowd.

“I’m worried about the future generation,” said Kevin Hepler ’76, “ [but] I feel better after what I saw here.”

Haeon Lee is the associate News editor for the ‘Prince’ leading research coverage. She is from Brooklyn, N.Y. and often covers campus research and academic departments. She can be reached at hl1389[at]princeton.edu.

Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.