REU Site: Vanderbilt University Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Physics & Astronomy

This award is funded in whole (or in part) under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). The award continues the funding of the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site at Vanderbilt University which offers undergraduate physics and astronomy students the opportunity to work closely with faculty on forefront research projects in a variety of subfields of physics.

The areas include astronomy and multimessenger astrophysics, biological physics, condensed matter physics including materials and nanoscience, nuclear physics, and particle physics, as well as projects involving the increasingly important and cross-cutting area of big data and data science. The research mentors are all renowned researchers and all have committed to personally directing the students.

An extensive research infrastructure, including the facilities of several large interdisciplinary centers, will be available to the students. Physics students will also have the opportunity to visit major facilities at government laboratories, both domestic and international, including FermiLab, Brookhaven, Oak Ridge, and CERN.

A key part of the program will be a continued emphasis on the participation of a high percentage of underrepresented minority students, women, and/or persons with disabilities, and more than half of the students will be from institutions with limited research opportunities. Furthermore, there is a strong emphasis on leadership development. The program includes training in ethical conduct of research, and, as part of the program's emphasis on developing the future workforce, includes the aforementioned focus on broadening participation of underrepresented groups in physics.

The best practices learned through building this program and through extensive work with national physics societies, especially the minority physics societies, are employed in recruiting participants. The program is designed to build ties between the Vanderbilt mentors, all of whom are supported researchers, and faculty at the student’s home institution.

This builds a larger community, provides for continued support for the student, and enhances the ability for continued mentoring and research participation of the student. In addition, students have the opportunity to participate in the Vanderbilt Pre-Launch program, a mini-course that introduces principles of entrepreneurship, offered through the NSF I-Corps Site program at Vanderbilt.

They also can benefit from short courses in computing and data science offered through the Vanderbilt Data Science Institute and/or the Vanderbilt supercomputing center (both directed by members of the Physics & Astronomy faculty). Finally, students are offered the opportunity for training in the integration of research with education through the Fisk-Vanderbilt Physics & Astronomy Roadshow outreach program.

This site is supported by the Division of Physics, the Division of Astronomical Sciences, and the Division of Materials Research within NSF's Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate.

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.