Research Experiences in Physics for Undergraduates at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

University Of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee WI

Investigators

Abstract

The Physics Department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will expand its NSF-funded REU site program for undergraduate physics majors during the summers of 2003 - 2005. A Research Experience for Teachers (RET) component will be combined with the REU program. As well as formal research activities, REU/RET interns are offered lectures from faculty about current research topics of general interest, a mini-course in classical mechanics, and site visits to GE Medical and the Wisconsin Light Source (Synchrotron) at Stoughton. Fields of experimental work for REU involvement include: optics, optical spectroscopy, and laser physics, including applications to cutting-edge biophysical and medical research; studies of condensed matter structure and surface structure, using a wide range of experimental techniques including Low Energy Electron Diffraction (LEED), infrared spectroscopy, molecular beam epitaxy and vacuum deposition, X-ray scattering and other X-ray spectroscopic techniques, and UV and X-ray photoemission. There are also groups working specifically with electron microscopy and acoustic propagation in high temperature superconductors. Fields of theoretical work include computational techniques for the extraction of the geometrical and electronic structure of materials from electron and X-ray probes, superconductivity and electronic structure, relativistic astrophysics, and the analysis of data from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO). Previous REU students have been successfully involved in all of these fields. It should be noted that the Department is heavily involved with the LIGO project, one of the biggest and most exciting collaborative projects in contemporary physics: the detection of gravitational waves, which are predicted by General Relativity but which have not yet been observed. Students who work with the LIGO group will be fully involved in the group's work, and have the opportunity to meet collaborators from other institutions.