Undergraduate students participate substantively in the research of a scientist at the Broad Branch Road campus of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, which includes both the Geophysical Laboratory and the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. The program is designed to bridge the gap between education and research, showing that both are essential to advancements in science, and are two parts of the same process. Students see tangible benefits from the hard work of science, among these the sense of accomplishment from an intellectual endeavor done well, while working directly with a leading scientist and participate first-hand in the excitement of scientific discovery using state-of-the-art techniques and facilities. Research projects in the geosciences (experimental petrology, mineralogy, mineral physics, seismology), planetary sciences and astronomy, and related chemical sciences (inorganic and organic geochemistry, cosmochemistry) are available.
Prior to beginning research, students become familiar with the literature of their research area and prepare a short research proposal in consultation with their advisor. During the research phase of the summer program, students and their advisors work together in close collaboration. At the end of the summer, students prepare a research paper utilizing the format of a leading journal in their field describing the results of their work, and present the results to their peers and the research staff at a special symposium held during the last week of the program. Students are encouraged to submit the results for presentation at a professional meeting, and/or use the results as part of a senior project, and to maintain contact with their research mentors to further the work done during the summer. With the broad range of research directions available at Carnegie, students can be exposed to a full range of disciplines in the geosciences through seminars, group meetings, and interactions among their fellow students.
Primary criteria for selection are scholarship, personal motivation, scientific potential as judged by student references, and a good match of student interests with available research programs. Recruitment focuses on reaching students from schools unable to offer a substantial research experience and students from groups historically under-represented in science. At Carnegie, we are well positioned to select highly qualified students from a variety of types of educational institutions, geographic locations and diverse backgrounds, all of which will add significantly to the vibrant intellectual activity that characterizes our campus.
The site is co-funded by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program.
In the REU Program at the Carneige Institution of Washington, participants have had opportunity to work directly and individually with a leading scientist and participate first-hand in the process of scientific discovery using state-of-the-art facilities in a unique research environment. Through an intense research experience, students have seen firsthand how both research and teaching are essential to advancements in science, and have gained an appreciation of the ethical responsibilities of scientific work. Our program has exposed students to a broad range of disciplines in the geosciences and related fields through seminars, group meetings, and interactions among their fellow students. Participants have gained a new appreciation of science that they have taken back to their home institutions; this has allowed them to resume their studies with a first-hand understanding of how scientific work is carried out and how scientific knowledge is created, verified and communicated. The Carnegie program has targeted talented students at a point when they are seriously evaluating career choices, and the research experience has provided a good idea of how a career in research might work for them. We have thereby added to the pool of students choosing to pursue graduate work (75% of our students have gone on to pursue graduate work in the sciences), who may then go on to research careers in academia, government or private industry. Recruitment has focused on reaching promising students who have not had a substantial research experience, and an increasing effort was made throughout the four years of our program to attract students from groups historically under-represented in science. At Carnegie, we have historically been well positioned to select highly qualified students from a variety of types of educational institutions, geographic locations and backgrounds, all of which will add significantly to the vibrant intellectual activity that characterizes our campus, and we believe we have accomplished that goal. The significance of the work we have done in the Carnegie REU program lies in the fact that all of our students made substantive contributions to the ongoing work of a member of our research staff, and 65% of our students have gone on to present their research results at a national meeting, despite the fact that, in almost every case throughout the four years of our program, the work that students were doing with us was entirely new to them.. The overall impacts of their individual contributions are small in comparison to the broader context of the projects of which they were a part, but they are now motivated to move forward and seek their own graduate education and strive to make those major impacts in the coming years. The key impact of the Carnegie Institution, however, is that we have been able to show the kind of remarkable progress that students can make within a summer's work, given the right environment, dedicated mentors, and the desire to work hard at the project.
