REU Site: Frontier Research and Training in Astronomy for the 21st Century

University Of Texas At Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

The University of Texas at Austin wishes to continue its 10-week summer REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) program hosting 8 students each year. Students will work closely with a diverse group of mentors from within the Astronomy Department to conduct theoretical and observational research in frontier areas of astronomy, including star formation, Solar System and exoplanet studies, stellar and galaxy evolution, dark matter/energy astrophysics, cosmology, and astronomical instrumentation. The students will have access to the facilities of the McDonald Observatory and the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), which are both affiliated with UT Austin. An emphasis is placed on summer research publication and all students will present their research at winter AAS meetings. Professional development activities (e.g., computational methods training from TACC and a week of hands-on research at McDonald Observatory) are also included. Other activities will focus on the development of confidence in underrepresented minorities (URM) and first-generation students. Students in the REU program will produce blogs, short videos, and StarDate Radio programs featuring their experiences and research. These products will be distributed to K-12 teachers at teacher professional workshops for further dissemination to students throughout Texas. Admission decisions are holistic and consider academic preparation and trajectory, grit/initiative, research engagement, community engagement, contributions to an inclusive campus, and other factors. The program has an ambitious goal of accepting at least 50% women and 50% URM into the program and will specifically not recruit from within UT Austin. The mentors are experienced and have received training in effective mentoring by the Texas Institute for Discovery Education in Science (TIDES). The pool of mentors is already diverse and committed to broadening participation in the STEM fields. 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.