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Newsletter 2.5 - November 29, 2023

Hopefully, everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving break. The fall semester only has eight class days remaining before finals. Here is the last newsletter of the semester that includes information about the upcoming party, WiP elections, and summer research programs. Remember to check old newsletters for additional information about REUs and graduate schools.

Department News and Events

  • Women in Physics will be meeting on Friday, December 1 at 4:00 PM in 208 Cudahy for elections.
  • Department Winter Party on Friday, December 8 at 4:30 PM in the Information Commons. Please let Nelda know if you plan to attend. It is always lots of fun.
  • Physics Seminar on Thursday, November 30th at 2:30 PM – Brian Cannon on Single Molecule DNA Biophysics

Summer REUs

  • The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) Experiment is excited to announce the next edition of the RENEW-HEP USCMS SPRINT/ USCMS PURSUE combined undergraduate internship program. The internship program is intended to address the under-representation of women and minority students in STEM fields and is open to students pursuing physics, engineering, computer science, mathematics, chemistry, and related fields. The program is sponsored by the Department of Energy (RENEW-HEP: USCMS SPRINT A Scholars Program for Research Internship) and the National Science Foundation USCMS Operations (USCMS PURSUE: Program for Undergraduate Research Summer Experience). The student internship program is offered and administered through Tougaloo College, in collaboration with Brown University, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, and University of Wisconsin-Madison. See the link to our program Website at: https://sites.google.com/upr.edu/uscms-pursue/ . We would like to ask for your help in encouraging students to participate in our program. We request you to please share this email with the students in your department and encourage them to attend the Webinar on either Dec 5, 2023 (4-6pm US Central) or December 11, 2023 (4-6pm US Central). During the Webinar, students will learn about the program and the application process. In addition,  interns and research mentors from previous editions of the program will share their experiences at the Webinar. This would be a great opportunity for prospective  students to learn first hand from program alumni. The link to agenda and registration information for the webinars can be found at the link USCMS PURSUE Webinars (https://sites.google.com/upr.edu/uscms-pursue/webinars). Focus of internship: The internships will offer female and minoritized undergraduate students an opportunity to perform a project under the mentorship of scientists working at the frontier of physics at one of the 50+ institutions in the United States. Students will use computational tools and data-science methods to learn about fundamental particles and their interactions by analyzing data obtained from the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) located at CERN, Switzerland and/or participating in CMS hardware/software projects. The program will last a period of 10 weeks between May 28, 2024, and August 2, 2024. Students will be paid $600 per week during the 10 weeks of the internship. The internship will be offered in-person mode. For those selected for the internship, housing will be provided. The application will open around the middle of December and until end of January 2023. The link to the program details and application for the internships is at  https://internships.fnal.gov/u-s-cms-undergraduate-internship/ and will be updated as soon the application opens. Questions related to the webinar and/or the program can be sent to the email address: USCMS-PURSUE-COMMITTEE@fnal.gov
  • St. Jude Children's Research Hospital invites students to apply for our NIH/NCI-funded (5 R25CA023944-39) Pediatric Oncology Education (POE) Program. The program offers a unique opportunity for pre-doctoral students preparing for careers in the biomedical sciences, medicine, and pharmacy to gain biomedical and oncology research experience. Students participate in basic or clinical oncology research, a core lecture series designed specifically for them, as well as research and clinical conferences. All participants make a PowerPoint presentation on their research project and submit a report on their research project written in the style of a journal in which their faculty mentor publishes. A primary goal of the POE program is to encourage students to pursue a career in cancer research. Thus, we are particularly interested in highly qualified students with a serious career interest in cancer research, either as a clinical scientist or laboratory-based research scientist. Our St. Jude Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences offers training in leading-edge scientific fields paired with unique mentoring in the St. Jude clinical experience. Highly motivated POE students will have the opportunity to be considered for admission to the St. Jude Graduate School upon completion of their undergraduate degree. All POE program applicants must already have research experience and be full time students at the time they apply. Applicants must be United States citizens, non-citizen nationals, or possess a visa permitting permanent residence in the United States (required by the funding agency). All must be in at least their college sophomore year of college at the time they apply. POE medical students spend a minimum of 10 weeks in the program. The minimum tenure requirement for all others is 11 weeks. All POE applicants must have an undergraduate GPA of at least 3.40 (on a 4.0 scale) in math and science (biology, chemistry, and physics) and at least a 3.40 overall. Program participants will receive a $600/week subsistence allowance. Fully furnished group housing will be provided at no cost for non-local participants. The POE home page contains links to the program application. The deadline for receipt of all 2024 application materials is February 1, 2024. Early application and submission of materials is highly recommended.
  • The James A. Purdy Summer Research Fellowship program offers undergraduate students the opportunity to perform medical physics research at the Medical Physics Division of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.. Fellows will be assigned a research project that matches their interests and will perform this research under the supervision of a medical physicist mentor. Fellows will also have the opportunity to shadow our clinical medical physicists and participate in additional educational experiences. There are multiple fellowships awarded each year, each carrying a competitive stipend provided by the Department of Radiation Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine. The fellowship will cover a period of 8-10 weeks during the summer academic semester (end of May through early August). The application deadline is January 15, 2024. Fellows will be notified of their acceptance by early March. More information and the link to the application can be found here: https://radonc.wustl.edu/education/summer-education-program-in-medical-physics/

Graduate School Information

  • Graduate Physics program at UMass Lowell. Deadline for Ph.D. applications is Jan. 15th. Here is a link to an electronic version of our 36-page brochure Merging Science with Technology available on our webpage, that describes research activities in the Department of Physics and Applied Physics at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. The campus is located twenty-five miles northwest of Boston, with a student population of over 18,000. We have 28 full-time faculty, approximately 75 graduate students and 100 undergraduate majors in the Department of Physics and Applied Physics. The Department has external grant and contract funding of over $10 million per year. Faculty research areas include advanced materials, astronomy and astrophysics, biomedical optics, biophysics, cosmology, medical physics, electromagnetic metamaterials, nanoscience and laser applications, nuclear physics (both fundamental and applied), photonics, plasma physics, quantum information, radiological health physics, soft condensed matter, space physics and terahertz technology. We are very excited about the strong cohort of researchers we have hired in the last few years who are adding new directions to our research strengths. More information is available at our website, www.uml.edu/physics. 
  • The University of Notre Dame's ESTEEM Graduate Program is an 11-month Masters in Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship. T. here are three remaining deadlines this academic year (December 1, January 29, and March 13). Please see the attached flyer.

Physics Fitness

Hopefully, everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving break. The fall semester only has eight class days remaining before finals. Here is the last newsletter of the semester that includes information about the upcoming party, WiP elections, and summer research programs. Remember to check old newsletters for additional information about REUs and graduate schools.

Department News and Events

  • Women in Physics will be meeting on Friday, December 1 at 4:00 PM in 208 Cudahy for elections.
  • Department Winter Party on Friday, December 8 at 4:30 PM in the Information Commons. Please let Nelda know if you plan to attend. It is always lots of fun.
  • Physics Seminar on Thursday, November 30th at 2:30 PM – Brian Cannon on Single Molecule DNA Biophysics

Summer REUs

  • The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) Experiment is excited to announce the next edition of the RENEW-HEP USCMS SPRINT/ USCMS PURSUE combined undergraduate internship program. The internship program is intended to address the under-representation of women and minority students in STEM fields and is open to students pursuing physics, engineering, computer science, mathematics, chemistry, and related fields. The program is sponsored by the Department of Energy (RENEW-HEP: USCMS SPRINT A Scholars Program for Research Internship) and the National Science Foundation USCMS Operations (USCMS PURSUE: Program for Undergraduate Research Summer Experience). The student internship program is offered and administered through Tougaloo College, in collaboration with Brown University, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, and University of Wisconsin-Madison. See the link to our program Website at: https://sites.google.com/upr.edu/uscms-pursue/ . We would like to ask for your help in encouraging students to participate in our program. We request you to please share this email with the students in your department and encourage them to attend the Webinar on either Dec 5, 2023 (4-6pm US Central) or December 11, 2023 (4-6pm US Central). During the Webinar, students will learn about the program and the application process. In addition,  interns and research mentors from previous editions of the program will share their experiences at the Webinar. This would be a great opportunity for prospective  students to learn first hand from program alumni. The link to agenda and registration information for the webinars can be found at the link USCMS PURSUE Webinars (https://sites.google.com/upr.edu/uscms-pursue/webinars). Focus of internship: The internships will offer female and minoritized undergraduate students an opportunity to perform a project under the mentorship of scientists working at the frontier of physics at one of the 50+ institutions in the United States. Students will use computational tools and data-science methods to learn about fundamental particles and their interactions by analyzing data obtained from the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) located at CERN, Switzerland and/or participating in CMS hardware/software projects. The program will last a period of 10 weeks between May 28, 2024, and August 2, 2024. Students will be paid $600 per week during the 10 weeks of the internship. The internship will be offered in-person mode. For those selected for the internship, housing will be provided. The application will open around the middle of December and until end of January 2023. The link to the program details and application for the internships is at  https://internships.fnal.gov/u-s-cms-undergraduate-internship/ and will be updated as soon the application opens. Questions related to the webinar and/or the program can be sent to the email address: USCMS-PURSUE-COMMITTEE@fnal.gov
  • St. Jude Children's Research Hospital invites students to apply for our NIH/NCI-funded (5 R25CA023944-39) Pediatric Oncology Education (POE) Program. The program offers a unique opportunity for pre-doctoral students preparing for careers in the biomedical sciences, medicine, and pharmacy to gain biomedical and oncology research experience. Students participate in basic or clinical oncology research, a core lecture series designed specifically for them, as well as research and clinical conferences. All participants make a PowerPoint presentation on their research project and submit a report on their research project written in the style of a journal in which their faculty mentor publishes. A primary goal of the POE program is to encourage students to pursue a career in cancer research. Thus, we are particularly interested in highly qualified students with a serious career interest in cancer research, either as a clinical scientist or laboratory-based research scientist. Our St. Jude Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences offers training in leading-edge scientific fields paired with unique mentoring in the St. Jude clinical experience. Highly motivated POE students will have the opportunity to be considered for admission to the St. Jude Graduate School upon completion of their undergraduate degree. All POE program applicants must already have research experience and be full time students at the time they apply. Applicants must be United States citizens, non-citizen nationals, or possess a visa permitting permanent residence in the United States (required by the funding agency). All must be in at least their college sophomore year of college at the time they apply. POE medical students spend a minimum of 10 weeks in the program. The minimum tenure requirement for all others is 11 weeks. All POE applicants must have an undergraduate GPA of at least 3.40 (on a 4.0 scale) in math and science (biology, chemistry, and physics) and at least a 3.40 overall. Program participants will receive a $600/week subsistence allowance. Fully furnished group housing will be provided at no cost for non-local participants. The POE home page contains links to the program application. The deadline for receipt of all 2024 application materials is February 1, 2024. Early application and submission of materials is highly recommended.
  • The James A. Purdy Summer Research Fellowship program offers undergraduate students the opportunity to perform medical physics research at the Medical Physics Division of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.. Fellows will be assigned a research project that matches their interests and will perform this research under the supervision of a medical physicist mentor. Fellows will also have the opportunity to shadow our clinical medical physicists and participate in additional educational experiences. There are multiple fellowships awarded each year, each carrying a competitive stipend provided by the Department of Radiation Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine. The fellowship will cover a period of 8-10 weeks during the summer academic semester (end of May through early August). The application deadline is January 15, 2024. Fellows will be notified of their acceptance by early March. More information and the link to the application can be found here: https://radonc.wustl.edu/education/summer-education-program-in-medical-physics/

Graduate School Information

  • Graduate Physics program at UMass Lowell. Deadline for Ph.D. applications is Jan. 15th. Here is a link to an electronic version of our 36-page brochure Merging Science with Technology available on our webpage, that describes research activities in the Department of Physics and Applied Physics at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. The campus is located twenty-five miles northwest of Boston, with a student population of over 18,000. We have 28 full-time faculty, approximately 75 graduate students and 100 undergraduate majors in the Department of Physics and Applied Physics. The Department has external grant and contract funding of over $10 million per year. Faculty research areas include advanced materials, astronomy and astrophysics, biomedical optics, biophysics, cosmology, medical physics, electromagnetic metamaterials, nanoscience and laser applications, nuclear physics (both fundamental and applied), photonics, plasma physics, quantum information, radiological health physics, soft condensed matter, space physics and terahertz technology. We are very excited about the strong cohort of researchers we have hired in the last few years who are adding new directions to our research strengths. More information is available at our website, www.uml.edu/physics. 
  • The University of Notre Dame's ESTEEM Graduate Program is an 11-month Masters in Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship. T. here are three remaining deadlines this academic year (December 1, January 29, and March 13). Please see the attached flyer.

Physics Fitness