REU/RET Site: Preparing the Workforce of the Future through Interdisciplinary Astrophysics Research

This project is a renewal of the REU site at the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) at Northwestern University (NU). The REU program will support ten undergraduate students per year and the RET program will support four teachers per year. Mentors come from four departments: Physics & Astronomy, Earth & Planetary Science, Engineering Sciences & Applied Mathematics, and Electrical & Computer Engineering. The proposed projects are centered on research methods in astrophysics, included theory, computation, instrumentation, and experiments. Students will have access to the high-performance computing facility at Northwestern, instruments at Fermilab, and a variety of astronomical telescopes. REU students will learn how astrophysical studies prepare them with a wide range of skills and can lead them to a variety of professional paths. The CIERA REU site gives students the experience of doing interdisciplinary astrophysical research, exposes them to a wide array of exciting research areas in astrophysics, and builds a community among the students and NU researchers. RET participants also carry out authentic astrophysics research, learn about cutting edge science, and work with experts from NU's Baxter Center for Science Education to turn their experience into high school curricular materials. The CIERA RET program has the potential to reach hundreds of students each year through these curricular activities. The REU program recruits a significant fraction of its participants from Chicago area undergraduate institutions, and the RET program recruits teachers from the Chicagoland high schools, in particular the Chicago Public School District’s 157 high schools, and more than 100,000 high school 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.