The University of Washington will continue to host a Physics Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program for the summers of 2004 - 2006. Each student participant is partnered with a UW faculty member for the 10-week program. The students become deeply involved in the faculty member's research, which may come from any part of physics and in some cases other related physical sciences. This allows the student first-hand involvement in the scientific process, including but not limited to: design, construction, and/or commissioning of novel instrumentation, data collection and analysis, numerical modeling, ab initio computation, development of software for statistical modeling, and theory.
The education of young scientists is of paramount importance to the continuing success of science in the United States. The REU program at the UW Physics Department has supervised over 120 students in its nine years of existence, with the vast majority of the student participants continuing to graduate school in the physical sciences, becoming involved in secondary education of science, or moving to the biological sciences for advanced study. By placing some emphasis on students from smaller colleges that lack research opportunities, this program further broadens the talent pool for science in the United States. In addition, efforts are made to attract women and minority students. This program is administered jointly by the Institute for Nuclear Theory and the Department of Physics at the University of Washington.
