Summer Research Opportunities for Undergraduates
Summer is a great time to get involved in research,
whether it's in a field you intend to study seriously,
or in one you just want to try out. There are many
opportunities for funding, as you'll see below, and
you are encouraged to take advantage of these. Note
that most REU application deadlines run from mid
January to early March, so you should get started
right away.
In addition to being a fun way to spend your summer, a research
job will (1) allow you to learn lots of things, (2) give you
a flavor of what grad school and industry are like, if these
are in your plans, and (3) allow various scientists to get to
know you and your work, which is always a good thing (actually,
a necessary thing) when it comes time to obtain letters of recommendation.
Some programs require you to have completed your sophomore or
junior year, but there are also plenty that are available for
freshmen. So if you're interested in doing research, there's
no excuse for not getting started early! Start searching around,
an join in the fun!
Your summer research can be funded in five basic ways. The funds
may come from:
- An REU program (this money comes from the NSF).
- Other organized programs that aren't REU's.
- The Physics Department.
- Various Harvard fellowships/programs.
- A specific faculty member (that is, from internal lab funds).
In more detail, these five basic ways to get funding are:
- REU Programs: Professors throughout
the country can apply for "Research Experiences
for Undergraduates" (REU) grants from the National
Science Foundation (NSF). Undergraduates in turn
can apply to these programs for the opportunity to
do summer research. There are many programs in a
variety of scientific fields. The application deadlines
generally run from late January to early March. The
webpage with the list of all the existing programs
is:
NSF's Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program
There are lots and lots of fields listed here, including Physics, Materials Research, Astronomy, Chemistry, Computer Science, Biology, and many more. So don't just look at the Physics ones! Programs are sometimes added late to the list, so check it periodically for changes.
- Non-REU Programs: There are many
other programs that are funded by various departments/agencies/schools,
but that are not REU's. Unfortunately, there is no
concise list of these, but flyers and posters for
many of them are on the bulletin board in the Lyman
lobby. Here's a list of some websites (if you know
of any other non-REU programs like these, please
let David Morin know!):
The Nucleus searchable database
Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships (SULI) at National Labs, funded by DOE
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
DOE Scholars Program
Caltech's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF)
Caltech's MURF program (for underrepresented students)
Caltech's Amgen program (mainly biology and chemistry)
Summer Research Opportunities at Harvard (SROH)
Summer Internship Programs at Fermilab
Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF), funded by NIST
Research Internships in Science and Engineering (in Germany)
NASA Undergraduate Student Research Program (and more NASA programs)
AT&T Undergraduate Research Program
Lucent Research Program for Minorities and Women
Lincoln Labs/MIT
High Altitude Observatory
Princeton Plasma Physics Lab
American Association of Physicists in Medicine
Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astonomy
Wolfram Research (Mathematica)
National Security Agency
NCAR Computational Science
Harvard's Office of Career Services
Google (you never know what you'll find...)
- The Harvard Physics Department has
some money available for summer research on campus.
The deadline for proposals (submitted to Lyman 238)
is Wednesday, March 27, 2013. See David Morin for
an application and more info.
The basic strategy for finding a professor and forming a proposal is to look around for a few professors whose work interests you, and to then start knocking on doors and sending out emails. Informal, but effective. You can learn about the faculty here.
These funds are limited, which means that the larger the number of students who stay on campus, the smaller the funding amount will be. You are therefore strongly encouraged to apply to REU programs. If you don't have a specific reason to stay at Harvard over the summer, it would be a shame to ignore the mindboggling number of REU's out there. If you decide to decline them in favor of a lab here at Harvard, that's fine. But for at least one summer you should take advantage of the opportunity to explore things and visit another university. Travel around the world, see interesting places, meet exotic people, and do physics.
If you end up doing reseach here at Harvard, your funding will likely come from a combination of sources: Physics Dept, HCRP, PRISE (if accepted), and internal lab funds.
- Harvard has various other souces of funding:
1) In order to be considered for Physics Dept funding, you MUST also submit your proposal to the Harvard College Research Program. Their deadline is also Wednesday, March 27, 2013. And the application is essentially the same.
2) You can also take advantage of the splendid PRISE Program, which offers housing along with social and educational events. See the PRISE webpage for more details. You are strongly encouraged to apply. Note that the deadline is fairly early: Tuesday, February 19, 2013.
3) You should also seriously consider applying for a Herchel Smith Fellowship. The deadline is also early: Wednesday, February 13, 2013. This is a fantastic fellowship. If you get it, it basically takes care of all your summer-money worries.
4) If you are interested in going abroad, you should consider the Weissman Fellowship. You can also search the Funding Database for International Experience for available funds.
5) Other Harvard sources of funding can be found on the Office of Career Services page.
- Internal lab funds: You can avoid all the above funding issues by going directly to a professor who happens to have some grant money available for undergraduate summer research. Some do, some don't. This strategy definitely requires some running around. But note well -- it would be very unwise to use only this strategy unless you have an early guarantee that it's going to work.
Final note: As you travel around the world to exotic places (doing research, vacationing, etc.), take a photo of yourself holding the physics department bumper sticker.You can either print out a copy, or stop by Lyman 238 to pick one up.
Contact David Morin if you have any questions. Good luck!!
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