Apply Now: Student Research Assistant on Critical Minerals and Battery Supply Chains

About the Project

How can we build battery supply chains that are more affordable, resilient, and low-carbon? The Harvard-China Project seeks a Harvard undergraduate research assistant to help investigate how mineral sourcing, production technologies, and public policies shape the costs and environmental impacts of batteries.

Beginning with lithium and expanding to other battery materials, the project follows supply chains from mineral extraction and refining through battery manufacturing. It brings together engineering, economics, and environmental policy to examine the trade-offs involved in the energy transition.

What You Will Do

Working with environmental scientist and project manager Dr. Jingran Zhang and the research team, you will help build the evidence base for this research. The role will focus primarily on literature review, information synthesis, and data organization:

• Review and synthesize evidence from academic papers, industry reports, and public datasets on battery materials, production processes, costs, and environmental impacts.
• Build a well-documented research database by extracting information into structured spreadsheets, recording sources, units, geographic coverage, and key assumptions.
• Summarize relevant policies, including trade measures, manufacturing incentives, and recycling requirements that may reshape battery supply chains.
• Prepare research summaries and comparison tables, identifying important findings, conflicting estimates, and gaps that warrant further investigation.

Qualifications

We welcome undergraduate students interested in energy, sustainability, economics, engineering, materials science, public policy, or related fields. Strong reading and writing skills, attention to detail, comfort working with spreadsheets, and the ability to work independently with guidance are important.

Previous experience with literature reviews, data organization, or reference-management tools is helpful but not required. Prior expertise in batteries or advanced programming is not necessary; curiosity, careful work, and a willingness to learn are essential.

What You Will Gain

You will receive research guidance and develop practical skills in literature synthesis, research data management, and evidence-based analysis. The role offers exposure to techno-economic analysis and life-cycle assessment, with opportunities to contribute to data analysis and visualization as your interests and skills develop. Your work will help connect detailed evidence about materials and manufacturing to broader questions about climate policy and the future of clean energy.

How to Apply

Please complete the application here by Friday, November 6: https://harvard.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2aSt2eLh9nGwCLI

Components of a complete application include:

1) A one-page cover letter (in PDF or Word);
2) A curriculum vitae (in PDF or Word);
3) A copy of your Harvard transcript; and
4) Contact information for one reference.

Questions

Please contact Kellie Nault, Harvard-China Project Communications Manager, at knault@fas.harvard.edu.