The REU-Site program will provide a diverse group of undergraduates in the sciences and engineering with hands-on experience in materials research. Student participants will be hosted by the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter (LRSM) at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) for 10 weeks during the summer. The targeted student participants will be gender and ethnically diverse, with representation from a broad spectrum of colleges throughout the nation. The intellectual focus of the program will be to introduce students to materials research as a cohesive subject of study. This objective will be achieved by incorporating the student participants into active research groups of faculty affiliated with the LRSM (www.lrsm.upenn.edu), which has a tradition of excellence in materials research. The program will expose the students to the different areas of research that comprise the basic framework of a modern materials program. Importantly, students also receive a series of lectures on research ethics, laboratory safety, and the fundamentals of materials science.
