REU site: REU Site in Materials and Astrophysics

University Of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas NV

Investigators

Abstract

A total of thirty undergraduate physics majors are engaged in research in materials and astrophysics for ten weeks during the summers of 2010, 2011, and 2012. Students are recruited nationally to the REU site, with preference for students from the Western states, students from underrepresented groups, and students from institutions with limited research facilities. Students live in the dorms at UNLV, eat their meals together, and form a cohesive social group. Student participate in research in the state-of-the-art laboratories at UNLV. In addition, students will have an opportunity to visit major national facilities at the Nevada Test Site and at either the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory or the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory. Many of the students will participate in research at the ALS or APS, using UNLV's research facilities. Thus students will thus get a research experience in both "small science" and "big science". Students from a small college are very impressed when they visit or work at a massive DOE facility. Many of today's students will work at world-class national research facilities. Becoming familiar with the world of Big Science is important for the students'future careers. A student who has had a research experience is more likely to attend graduate school. In recent years, 64% of the graduating students have gone on to graduate school in physics or a closely related field. The program encourages promising students to choose careers in science and engineering. During the summers of 2010-2012, REU students work on research projects, including experiments on the properties of matter under extremely high pressure (millions of atmospheres, comparable to conditions in the center of the Earth), using the facilities of UNLV's High Pressure Science and Engineering Center, which operates laboratories at UNLV and a beamline at the Advanced Photon Source. Other students work on projects in astrophysics, such as analysis of Gamma Ray Bursts, the most violent events in the universe; or computer modeling of the physics of accretion disks near black holes. Student projects often result in student co-authorship of presentations at professional meetings or publications in the professional scientific literature.