Call for 2026 Summer Research Associates
Come spend the summer at the Topos Institute! For early-career researchers, we’re excited to open up applications for our 2026 Summer Research Associate program.
For early-career researchers, we’re excited to open up applications for our Summer Research Associate (RA) program. These positions require collaboration within a multi-disciplinary research environment consisting of mathematicians, computational and computer scientists, and domain scientists (both theoretical and experimental) conducting basic and applied research in support of Topos’ mission. Each Summer RA will complete a specific Topos project, and will write a blog post by the last week of their employment. These projects may include an internal talk, software contribution, or paper. Please visit here to see the accomplishments of the previous cohorts.
This year there are two tracks for Summer RAs: a research track and an engineering track.
Topics for research-track RAs may include:
- Computational category theory using CatColab (Rust/Typescript skills recommended)
- Double category theory
- Categorical statistics
- Polynomial functors
- Interacting dynamical systems
- Hybrid dynamical systems, attractor theory and fast-slow dynamics
- Proof assistants and structure editors
- Philosophical and ethical aspects of applied category theory
For engineering-track RAs, we have projects related to CatColab, which is our first step at Topos toward building production-grade software intended for users without specialized mathematical training. CatColab is a web application with a novel category-theoretic core written in Rust, backed by a server also written in Rust. Its frontend, written in TypeScript/SolidJS, features real-time collaborative editing within a notebook-style interface. This is a unique opportunity to contribute to an open source software system that draws on cutting-edge research to support collective inquiry for the public benefit. Engineering-track RAs do not need to know any category theory to be a good fit for this role (though an ideal candidate would have some familiarity with the subject). If you’ve worked on a technical, production-quality web app, ideally using Rust or TypeScript, and you’re excited about CatColab, then we’d like to hear from you.
You can read more about all the past RAs and their projects on the Summer RA page, or read about each year’s cohort by following the links in the captions below.
Applications are now open. The position is full-time (~40 hours per week) and paid at a rate between 30 and 50 USD per hour, depending on experience.
For full details on how to apply, see the call for applications below. Note that the deadline for applications is January 16th, 2026.