This award is to support the renewal of the UnIPhy-REU site program at Hampton University. The award will support the summer research residential program for undergraduate physics and science majors along with its summer research program for teachers - TIRP-RET. The main focus of the UnIPhy-REU site program is to offer a research experience in the areas of nuclear, particle, optical and medical physics or atmospheric sciences to students from groups normally underrepresented in physics. Eight students will conduct research in labs on the campus of Hampton University and at the nearby Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. Four students will participate in the UnIPhy-REU/MIT Summer Program for Undergraduate Research with an Electron Ion Collider at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The TIRP-RET program will provide research opportunities in experimental nuclear or particle physics for two high school teachers. The main focus of the UnIPhy-REU and TIRP-RET programs is to introduce undergraduate students and high school teachers to the process of conducting advanced scientific research, specifically in the field of physics. Students conduct research under the guidance of a mentor; they are in daily contact with the mentor, researchers, and graduate students. Additionally, students participate in seminars and social activities. At the conclusion of the program, students give a thirty-minute oral presentation and submit a written research report. This award is co-funded by the Division of Physics and by the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate.
(UnIPhy-REU) in the Hampton University Department of Physics excited thirty-four participants in this three-year program about physics by emphasizing the importance of research at the undergraduate level and providing tools necessary to become effective independent researchers. UnIPhy immersed students in a rigorous research experience by primarily targeting rising sophomores and juniors. UnIPhy helped renew students' excitement for physics and gave students confidence in their abilities by engaging them in a hands-on research experience environment with a team comprised of the research mentor, other researchers, post-doctoral fellows, and undergraduate or graduate students. It also impressed upon students that "doing physics" is a team effort. To maximize the program's effectiveness, UnIPhy-REU selected students who attended colleges and universities with little or no research programs and strongly encouraged the participation of students from backgrounds typically underrepresented in the field of physics. UnIPhy-REU has shown its commitment to serving underrepresented populations since its inception, and African American and female students have comprised 72% and 44%, respectively, of participants since 1997. Research was conducted in medical physics (nuclear instrumentation and applications), nanotechnology and in the areas of nuclear/high energy, optical, particle and plasma physics. The department housed the Center for the Study of the Origin and Structure of Matter (an NSF funded Frontier Center) and the Center for Laser Science and Spectroscopy (an NSF funded CREST Center). Hampton University, one of only a few Historically Black Universities and Colleges to offer a Ph.D. in Physics, has been very successful in graduating African-American Ph.D. students. The graduates have served as role models and mentors for the REU students. The UnIPhy-REU program has been very successful in recruiting students from underrepresented groups in physics, particularly women and African-American students and was listed on the NSF REU web-site as a site for women and minority students. Participants were selected based solely on their qualifications and desire to participate in a physics research experience. Hampton University partnered with the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Laboratory for Nuclear Science (LNS) in 2007 to create an annual UnIPhy-REU/MIT program with an emphasis on the Electron Ion Collider. The recent Nuclear Science Advisory Committee Long-Range Plan endorsed an Electron Ion Collider (EIC) as an essential tool in the long-term vision of the field of nuclear physics. Physics groups at MIT and HU played a key role in the development of such a collider. In this 2-year program, four students spent their first summer conducting research at Jefferson Lab for 8 weeks and travel to MIT to conduct an additional 1-2 weeks of work each year. The following summer, the same students were invited to conduct research at MIT for the entire duration of the UnIPhy-REU program. Ten students participated in research at MIT-LNS through this award. Over the three-year period of this award, thirty-four UnIPhy-REU participants were selected from more than twenty different institutions, including six Historically Black Colleges, several small colleges (e.g., Grove City College and Bard College at Simon’s Rock) and majority research institutions (e.g., Carnegie Mellon University and University of Massachusetts). Participants presented papers at scientific meetings and conferences during and after the summer programs were completed. One student presented a poster paper at the 51st Annual meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics (Atlanta, GA, 2009) and coauthored a paper published in Radiation Effects and Defects in Solids (2010). Another student presented the results of her work at the Eighteenth Annual International Conference on Composites/Nano Engineering held in Anchorage, Alaska (July 2010) and at the National Undergraduate Research in Ithaca, New York (March 2011). All the UnIPhy students presented papers at the midpoint of the program along with REU students from the College of William and Mary. Key research mentors and other personnel included Donald Whitney, Interim Chair, who served as the administrative director for UnIPhy-REU for most of the past three years; Falcon Rankins served as the program coordinator responsible for the recruitment, selection, and supervision of students and mentors, and organization of the seminars and GRE sessions for the 2010 program; and Rolf Ent, former Hall C leader at Jefferson Lab and member of the Steering Committee of the EIC Jefferson Lab, coordinated the UnIPhy-REU/MIT Summer Program for Undergraduate Research with an Electron Ion Collider. The overall success of the proposed UnIPhy-REU should be measured against its primary goals to: retain minority and female undergraduates in Physics and increase their interest, confidence, and enthusiasm in the field provide participants a toolset to become effective independent researchers who pursue further research opportunities encourage participants to pursue graduate studies in physics or related STEM fields to expose participants to a variety of topics of physics research.
