REU Site: Physics and Astronomy Research at Rutgers

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This award supports the continuation of the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Nine students per summer will be brought to Rutgers for ten weeks each, during which they will engage in forefront research in astronomy, high-energy and nuclear physics, condensed matter physics, and physics education. The students will also engage in a program of field trips and professional development activities that educate them about the conduct of research and arm them with the information and tools they need to define and achieve their educational and professional goals. The award will promote the progress of science in the multiple areas from which research projects are drawn, and will support the education and training of 27 students-- many from underrepresented backgrounds and/or institutions with limited research opportunities-- thereby broadening participation in the physics and astronomy communities and the STEM workforce.To achieve its goals, the REU site will provide a mixture of formal and informal settings in which participating students will interact with each other, with their faculty mentors and assigned graduate student "near-peer" mentors, with Rutgers undergraduate physics and astronomy majors, and with a diverse co-residential peer group from outside Rutgers working in completely different STEM fields. Faculty mentors include multiple APS Fellows and NSF CAREER award winners and are a vibrant, collegial, intellectually diverse, and well-funded set of scientist-educators with exciting research programs and excellent records of working with undergraduates. Students will live and socialize with peers in the Rutgers Research in Science and Engineering (RiSE) program, a key organizational partner. Relative to the previous site award, the renewal award will innovate by introducing mentorship training, flexible supervisory arrangements, physics education research opportunities, and program assessment featuring national benchmarking and external evaluation.