REU Site: Broadening Undergraduate Research Participation in Physics and Astronomy at Stony Brook University

This award supports the Research Experience for Undergraduates site at Stony Brook University. Each year, 10 undergraduate students engage in hands-on, cutting-edge physics research on topics including plasma accelerator physics, condensed matter physics, astrophysics, high energy physics, nuclear physics, computational physics, and quantum information science. Research projects are available both at Stony Brook University and at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The site offers leading faculty with enthusiasm for working with undergraduates and high engagement with cutting edge research. Students will work alongside faculty on novel research projects and be given instruction in research techniques, presenting their work, and computational and experimental skills. In addition to learning advanced research methods and gaining physics insight, the REUs participate in mentoring relationships, receive training in technical communications, teamwork, and leadership skills and receive graduate-school and career guidance. The program culminates in a poster presentation at the Summer Research Symposium, which is conducted in collaboration with all summer research programs at Stony Brook, giving the participants their first taste of conference presentation and participation. 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.