REU Site: Physics Research Experience for Undergraduates at the University of California, San Diego

University Of California-San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

The Department of Physics at the University of California, San Diego proposes to offer summer research training to fifteen undergraduate students per year for the next 5 years. Applications will be considered from students across the nation. Students will participate in an individual research project supervised by a Physics Department faculty member. Student projects will include experimental, theoretical, and computational research in high energy physics, condensed matter physics, biophysics, plasma physics, astrophysics and nonlinear physics. The research projects will be designed to guide students from a dependent research status to one that will allow each student to become as independent as their research skills and abilities permit. On arriving, students will work with their faculty advisor to prepare and present a proposed project. At the end of the summer, they will write a final research report and give a presentation at a campus wide Undergraduate Research Conference run by the UCSD Academic Enrichment Office. The REU program includes physics seminars by faculty, regular meetings with one of the program directors, seminars/workshops on computer usage, laboratory safety and library research, and joint scientific seminars and meetings with groups from other departments. Students will have the opportunity to attend workshops on graduate school admission and fellowship procedures, how to write a research paper, public speaking, instructional technology and GRE training.