This award supports a new research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site to be located at Old Dominion University in partnership with Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The REU site will provide research opportunities for 6-10 undergraduates in accelerator and nuclear physics. The goal is to expose selected undergraduates to the sense of excitement and accomplishment that accompanies independent research and to provide information and contacts that can improve their chances of remaining in physics. The students will have ample time to interact with each other, the ODU faculty, graduate students and Jefferson Lab staff scientists, several of whom hold joint appointments at ODU. Social/Cultural activities will be organized to help forge a strong bond among the students. In rigorously peer-reviewed projects in Jefferson Lab's state-of-the-art facilities - an environment with a longstanding tradition of mentoring and nurturing students - the REU students will be well guided to make meaningful contributions to advances in superconducting RF structures, novel accelerator design, and particle detectors.
The Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at Old Dominion University (ODU) is conducted in association with the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab). The program's goal is to encourage and excite students into pursuing scientific careers in Nuclear and Accelerator Physics; we strive to place between 60 and 80 percent of the students in accelerator physics, while adhering to student interests. ODU has had a large presence at Jefferson Lab in Experimental and Theoretical Nuclear Physics since the lab's inception. During the last decade, this association expanded into the field of Accelerator Physics. While Nuclear Physics is a well-known field to undergraduates, Accelerator Physics remains somewhat unknown, though accelerators have increasingly become important research tools in biology, medicine, and materials, to name just a few. The growth of accelerators for research and for applications such as medical diagnostics and treatment resulted in a demand for accelerator scientists nationally and world-wide. Additionally, Accelerator Physics is inherently inter-disciplinary and offers a variety of scientific and engineering career choices to the students. In addition to being a unique Nuclear Physics facility, Jefferson Lab is a world leader in both Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) accelerator technology and high current polarized electron sources. SRF technology is becoming the choice for many contemplated light sources and the International linear Collider. Our REU program makes students not only aware of these exciting possibilities but prepares them to take advantage of them. Our REU students participate in ongoing leading edge projects in both Nuclear and Accelerator Physics. They receive safety training relevant to their projects, attend a seminar series (including a seminar on ethics in research), presented by leading scientists, tailored specifically for their level, and have access to excellent facilities. While the students have primary mentors, they work as a part of a team (scientists, engineers, technicians, post-docs and graduate students) and are thus mentored by the team. The students are required to write a paper at the end of their term, prepare and present a poster at the poster session, and orally present their research. The students receive training in all these aspects of scientific communication. Planned recreational and social activities provide a break from the busy research work. We encourage our students to participate in undergraduate gatherings. Over the past three years (2008-2010), 21 students participated in the ODU/Jefferson Lab REU program (40% female and 10% minority students). One of our former students is now in business, three are either in graduate school or entering graduate school, and the others are continuing with their undergraduate programs. Eight of our students have participated in the Conference Experience for Undergraduates organized as part of the fall Division of Nuclear Physics meeting. Three of our students participated in Argonne National Laboratory's SERCh program, and one of them (Colin Jarvis) was awarded a $1000 prize for his research project conducted during the summer of 2010. As a result of his research work during the summer, Colin Jarvis also received a Goldwater award. We invite promising students to continue working with their mentors during the academic year, provided they have time to do so. Presently, three students have taken advantage of this opportunity. In summary, the ODU/Jefferson Lab REU program attempts to provide excellent research training to undergraduates with the express goal of increasing their chances of pursuing scientific careers, especially in Nuclear and Accelerator Physics. While three years is a short time to evaluate the efficacy of the program, the results so far are that three of the four 2008 students are pursuing graduate studies and the 2009-2010 students are continuing their undergraduate studies.
