This award supports a new Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site in Physics at the University of Texas Brownsville. The site includes a Research Experience for Teachers (RET) component. The REU and RET site will focus on research in frontier areas of phenomenological, experimental and applied physics at state of the art facilities. In gravitational wave astronomy students will be given a coherent unified view of the field and learn the scientific value of both the potential wealth of astrophysical information to be obtained from this new astronomical window and of the challenges posed in developing the technological expertise necessary at the instrumental level in opening this new window. In photonics they will learn of the challenges and promises that this fast evolving discipline holds for new electronics. In biophysics participants will be exposed to state of the art techniques in one molecule spectroscopy and in investigations in the role of amino acids in protein structure and function. In materials science they will learn about thermoelectric materials and their potential use for renewable energy. In addition, this summer research experience for undergraduates will have a close mentoring and guidance system from the faculty in place during the entire duration, fostering interaction and active participation by students through seminars, lunch meetings, colloquia and presentations. This site is co-funded by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program.
