REU Site: Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Atomic, Molecular, and Biological Physics

Sri International, Menlo Park CA

Investigators

Abstract

The Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site at the Molecular Physics Laboratory at SRI International provides six undergraduate students the opportunity to participate in twelve weeks of summer research on topics in atomic, molecular and biological physics in a non-university research laboratory. This program produces students who understand the process of performing research, starting with the development of the problem and continuing with evaluation of the approach, performing measurements, and drawing conclusions. This training helps prepare the Nation's future well-trained workforce required to continue to lead an increasingly technological world. The program has also incorporated an ethics training class and has actively pursued field trips with summer interns to local Silicon Valley startups to showcase scientific research and development in its most nascent and challenging phase. In addition to participating in research with an experienced mentor, the REU students will engage in weekly activities such as seminars, ethics training, safety training, and visits to other research laboratories, to ensure not only that their research stays on track but that they have an engaging collegial and scholarly experience. By the end of the program, every student will have presented the results of the work in a thirty-minute seminar. The host laboratories, known for research in physics and interdisciplinary offshoots of physics based research, have a proven record of undergraduate research as evidenced by the number of student coauthors in journal publications. SRI will assign a Ph.D. mentor to each student, conduct an extensive program that includes field trips and seminars, provide training in laboratory safety, and develop a social program for the students. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.