The Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) is a collaboration of Duke University, North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and other institutions in the North Carolina Triangle area, which has established a diverse research program in low-energy nuclear physics. TUNL has a strong reputation for providing hands-on experimental research experience to graduate and undergraduate students, who are involved in all aspects of nuclear physics experiments. Research projects are focused on resolving issues in, for example, few-body physics, nuclear-level densities, weak interactions and fundamental symmetries, photonuclear reactions, nuclear astrophysics and radiative-capture reactions.
The REU summer program provides undergraduate students with a realistic and active research experience through the completion of a self-contained 10-week project and through the understanding of the project's integral contribution to the ongoing research program at TUNL. The broad scope of activities at TUNL, which involve data collection, data analysis and instrumentation development, offers the variety in project selection needed to productively involve students who have diverse academic and research backgrounds, capabilities and interests. To broaden the research experience, a special lecture series has been incorporated into the program to increase the students' exposure to current topics in nuclear physics and to share details about the research resources at TUNL. At the end of the summer program, students prepare written and oral presentations that help them to organize an overview of their research projects.
