This award supports the renewal of the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program coordinated by the University of Michigan offering research experiences at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN). When the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is completed at CERN, it will represent the frontier for experimental high energy physics for several decades to come. Students and teachers working on LHC focused problems at CERN experience an intellectual apprenticeship and learn to understand the nature of international scientific collaboration and the questions and methods of modern physics. The two parts of the program are (1) the historical UM-CERN physics program involving 15 students in research at CERN with CERN based mentors and (2) a high school teachers program involving five teachers participating in the three week CERN High School Teacher program augmented by a three-week period of research participation in the LHC experiments. The students will spend 8-9 weeks at CERN participating in research projects, attending a physics lecture series and interacting with European scientists and science students. The program orientation contains components designed to help them learn how to live in Geneva, instruction in computing, seminars on physics and ethics along with tours of the CERN experiments. The students will gather frequently to give talks about their research activities, learning about the protocols and techniques of physics presentations. Each day they also work with assigned mentors on current physics problems. An onsite Coordinator is present at CERN to assist the students with any matters related to program or personal needs. Each student must give a final talk on their accomplishments and participate in the program evaluation. The teachers will participate in the CERN HST program http://teachers.web.cern.ch/teachers/ and will have the opportunity to work with LHC research groups. This award is co-funded by the Division of Physics and by the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate.
The UM-CERN REU program has been organized by the University of Michigan since 2001. The goal is to provide a nine week research experience at CERN for fourteen- fifteen selected students from a balanced range of small and large US colleges and universities. Special efforts are made to encourage applications from institutions with a significant minority representation. For the grant reported on here, 45 students spent a summer at CERN. At CERN, our students become part of the large CERN research community. They are linked to research projects associated with active groups working at CERN and with projects mentored by scientists from around the world. The projects cover subject areas ranging from computer science to high energy physics and involve both theoretical and experimental activities. At the end of the program, some of our students have commented on their experience. "This was a really amazing program. Not only are the research projects really cool, but you also get to go to Europe and see tons of new things. Also, it’s amazing to be part of such a huge group of students from all over." "The UM-CERN REU has made me certain that particle and nuclear physics is the field I want to pursue. It has also made me aware of the social responsibilities of a scientist and of the benefits of working in an international community." "The collaborative efforts of the people at CERN set an example and it is sincere hope that the rest of the world will eventually catch on" "This summer, I’ve learned so much about so many different areas of physics, from detectors to dark matter. In addition, I’ve really improved my programming. I’ve also had an absolutely amazing summer. I made great friends from around the world, I traveled around Europe, and I spent time at CERN doing what I love." At CERN, the students attend a set of morning lectures and spend the afternoon with their research groups. The lectures range from tutorials in how to turn raw data into physics results to overviews of particle accelerators in cancer therapy. Our students have many different kinds of projects. They run accelerator shifts, they help with designing and building detector upgrades, they analyze data and they work on new theoretical models for future experiments. Some of the projects have a direct impact on society. For example, one of our students (from Loylola-Balitmore) designed a system providing a remote display of the CERN accelerator status. The system can be accessed by the general public to find out what is happening at the world’s premier high energy accelerator laboratory and it also provides accelerator information for physicists working from their home countries. In addition to providing student opportunities we are able to provide an opportunity for five US high school physics teachers to participate in the three week CERN-High School Teacher (HST) program. For the grant reported on here, twenty US physics teachers came to CERN. Each summer they joined physics teachers from around the world to CERN for three weeks of lectures, classes and workshops. They develop curriculum materials for use in any high school physics class. At the end of the program, many of the teachers tell us that the opportunity to interact with teachers from around the world is a personal highlight helping them understand that teaching transcends culture. Some comments from their program evaluations are "I cannot express how valuable the interaction with my international colleagues was to making HST a valuable experience. Each and every day I had discussions on education or political philosophy, physic and physics education. These people became my friends. " "The lectures, the activities, the discussions were all a tremendous experience. The education I received and am now trying to relay to my students was extremely rewarding. "
