There are many fine opportunities for undergraduate physics majors
to work in off-campus research environments. These experiences serve
to complement on-campus research activities and to expose students
to a broad range of research settings, projects, and equipment. A
majority of Wellesley physics majors spend at least one summer or
semester working on an off-campus research project.
Most
students who participate in off-campus research activities do so during
the summer. There are a number of well-established summer research
programs throughout the United States that encourage, and fund, undergraduate
participation. Many of the programs are sponsored by the National
Science Foundation through the Research Opportunities for Undergraduates
(REU) program. Over fifty physics projects at universities, colleges,
national laboratories, and industrial laboratories are described on
the website http://www.nsf.gov/home/crssprgm/reu/.
Projects in related fields, such as engineering, materials science,
atmospheric science, and astronomy, are also described on the NSF
website.
For
the past four summers, at least one Wellesley physics major has participated
in the highly-regarded SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship)
program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
in Gaithersburg, MD. The NIST program specializes in providing hands-on
research experiences in atomic, molecular, optical, radiation and
chemical physics. See http://physics.nist.gov/ResOpp/surf/surf.html.
Off-campus
research opportunities during the academic year are made possible
through Wellesley's long-standing exchange program with MIT. Wellesley
students are eligible to participate in MIT's Undergraduate Research
Opportunities Program (UROP), in which students work with MIT faculty
on research-based intellectual collaborations. See http://web.mit.edu/urop/
for application details.
The
Wellesley College Society of Physics Students website maintains links
to a number of summer research programs and the Physics Department
has a collection of brochures and electronic information on summer
programs.
