REU SITE: University of Kansas Physics and Astronomy Research Experiences for Undergraduates

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This award seeks to establish a new Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site at the University of Kansas with the objective of exposing ten undergraduate participants for 10 weeks per summer to research in the areas of astronomy, astroparticle physics, high energy theory, and condensed matter theory and experiment. The mentoring faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Kansas have experience designing short-term research projects and including student results in publications. At the same time participants will increase their computing skills through a computational bootcamp during the first week, and develop professional skills such as scientific writing, presenting, and discussing results.This REU site will offer participating students, after completion of their research projects, the opportunity to attend a scientific conference and present their results. In addition, this REU will provide ethics training, including workshops on implicit bias, bystander intervention, and research ethics. The scientific activities will be supplemented with graduate student mentoring and departmental social activities, including student-run Diversity in Physics gatherings. Participant recruitment efforts will be National, but will provide a particular focus on students from smaller colleges in the Midwest and underrepresented students (URM). Applications will be evaluated holistically including both cognitive and non-cognitive assessments, and a certain number of participant slots will be provided for underrepresented students and women/non-binary students. A keystone outcome of this REU program is to have participating students present at national scientific conferences. This will broaden their exposure to the fields of physics and astronomy while increasing their visibility, which is especially important in ensuring the success of URM 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.