This award supports a planning project to develop a "Research and Study Abroad Program" to avail U.S. undergraduate students access to the world-leading research facilities at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the World Health Organization and the various operations of the United Nations based in Geneva, Switzerland. A facility is envisioned to house approximately sixty American students in the greater Geneva community, to provide them with proper supervision and security, to provide a structure for repatriating to their U.S. institutes course credit for their participation in cutting-edge data collection and analysis efforts at these facilities, and for any approved courses they take during their research and field study abroad period. It is expected, based on the experience of the CERN REU program, that the students will contribute in real and meaningful ways to the research program underway at CERN, and by extension, to the World Health Organization and other institutions based in Geneva.
Objective: To create a research and study abroad program that would allow U.S. undergraduate students access to the world-leading research facilities at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the World Health Organization, various operations of the United Nations and other international organizations based in Geneva. Project Description: The proposal is based on the unique opportunities currently existing in Geneva. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is now operational at CERN, data are being collected, and research results are already beginning to emerge. At the same time, a related reduction of activity at U.S. facilities devoted to particle physics is expected. In addition, the U.S. higher-education community has an ever-increasing focus on international organizations dealing with world health pandemics, arms control and human rights, a nexus also centered in Geneva. But perhaps most important, students based in Geneva would have the rare opportunity to participate in cutting-edge research at CERN and other international organizations. While being exposed to the people, tools and activities surrounding the LHC and other complex international programs, they will also be offered academic credit for their research contributions; these students, in other words, will contribute directly to the research program of the LHC and will learn by so doing. The program thus differs from traditional study abroad programs, whose curriculum plans are created for educational purposes alone. This initiative builds on the National Science Foundation (NSF)–funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program operated by the University of Michigan at CERN, which has been highly successful in introducing young students to the excitement of LHC research and, in many cases, drawing them into high energy physics in their subsequent postgraduate studies. Although the program typically receives approximately 250 outstanding applications each year, it can only accommodate 15 students for two months each summer. This level of involvement is far below the needs of the 97 U.S. institutions participating at CERN and far below student demand. Creating year-round research and study abroad opportunities would both address this unmet need and increase the pipeline of future physicists. Similarly, broadening the program to include other Geneva-based organizations would help to achieve a wider national goal of increasing the number of U.S. students studying abroad and having access to cutting edge facilities wherever they are.
