REU Site: Solar Physics Program at Montana State University

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The Principal Investigators (PIs) will continue their highly successful "Research Experiences for Undergraduates" (REU) program in solar physics at Montana State University (MSU). The main activity of this program is the mentoring and supervision of undergraduate students who will perform individual research projects in solar physics for ten weeks during the summer. Most of these student projects will involve the analysis of data from spacecraft and from ground-based solar observatories. The PIs' target group will be undergraduates majoring in Physics, Astronomy, Mathematics, and Computer Sciences. The Montana State summer program will introduce these undergraduates to solar physics research through independent science projects performed with a faculty mentor, and frequently with a graduate student co-mentor. During the summer, REU students will take an introductory course in solar physics which includes lectures by visiting scholars, and the students' final research reports will be posted online. These student projects also frequently result in joint professional publications and confernece presentations with the MSU faculty mentor. MSU mentors have been highly successful in recruiting women into this REU experience, and program activities have also included Native American students and teachers. This REU program's "Ethics in Science" training component has developed into a successful element presented by a specialist in that field. Prior REU student feedback concerning the utility of this ethics component indicates that this training has left an indelible imprint that will serve these students well, regardless of their future career choices. Previous REU participants at MSU have also reported that their exposure to professional research in a university environment encouraged them to continue their graduate education and to pursue research as a profession. With its strong space science component, the program offers benefits to society by providing citizens and future researchers with an understanding of space weather impacts on Earth's space environment. Since solar physics is taught at relatively few colleges and universities in the US, the Montana State REU Program provides an important service to this discipline.