REU Site: Multidisciplinary Underground Science at the Sanford Underground Research Facility

黑山州立大学(BHSU)将在桑福德地下研究设施(SURF)举办为期10周的本科生研究体验(REU)项目，以地下科学为中心。该计划每年招收6-8名本科生，参加激动人心的地下研究项目以及专业发展、社交和外展活动。地下科学为包括物理、化学和生物在内的各种学科的研究提供了可能性。BHSU REU网站的招聘工作将特别侧重于美国印第安人、女性和社区大学生。我们这个时代的一些最重要的物理实验目前正在SURF进行，搜索暗物质并研究中微子的性质。学生将有机会从事与这些实验相关的研究，方法是分析用于放射性纯度测量的材料，使用蒙特卡罗模拟来调查这些材料对探测器的影响，以及测试惰性气体的化学纯度。此外，SURF正在对地下深处的生命进行研究，并将其应用于医学和天体生物学，特别是在微生物环境的多样性和新微生物的分离方面。还将进行补充化学研究，以确定这些微生物生活的当地环境。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Black Hills State University (BHSU) will host a 10-week Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program centered on underground science at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF). This program will recruit 6-8 undergraduate students each year to participate in exciting underground research projects as well as professional development, social and outreach activities. Underground science offers possibilities for research across a variety of disciplines including physics, chemistry and biology. Recruitment efforts of the BHSU REU site will be especially focused on American Indian, female and community college students. Some of the most important physics experiments of our time are currently in operation at SURF, searching for dark matter and investigating properties of the neutrino. Students will be offered the opportunity to engage in research related to these experiments by assaying materials for radiopurity measurements, using Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the effect of these materials on detectors and testing the chemical purity of noble gases. Additionally, research at SURF is being carried out in the study of life deep underground, with applications to medicine and astrobiology, in particular in the diversity of microbial environments and in the isolation of novel microbes. Complementary chemistry research will also be performed to determine the local environment in which these microbes live.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.