2008 Los Alamos Summer School in Physics
This year marked the eighteenth session of the Los Alamos Summer School (LASS) in Physics, a joint educational project between the University of New Mexico (UNM) and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The school employs a dual track of lectures on a wide variety of topics as well as student research projects to give the students their first taste of real research. All the lecturers and mentors who participated in LASS were volunteers. The lecturers were distinguished scientists from LANL and UNM, and discussed topics as diverse as climate modeling, high-energy physics, and the latest developments in astrophysics. The research projects, each individually mentored by a LANL scientist, concentrated on a specific problem and allowed the student to experience how research is undertaken at a national laboratory. Research projects were in many areas of science including atomic physics, high-energy physics, computational neuroscience, and supernovae modeling.
Many of the students presented their research at the annual Los Alamos Student Symposium, which was held at UNM-Los Alamos (UNM-LA), August 5-6, 2008. Two students won outstanding presentation awards, as showcased in a recent ADTSC highlight This year we were also fortunate to tour the Very Large Array (VLA) facility in Socorro, NM, as well as the research laboratories at UNM in Albuquerque.
The National Science Foundation provides funding to the university side through its Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site, and this year the LANL Institute for Advanced Studies supports the Laboratory component. In addition, this year we were again pleased to receive support from the Los Alamos National Laboratory's Quantum Institute. The school recruits nationwide and the majority of students were junior or senior undergraduates. Twelve students, from a variety of backgrounds and locations, participated in this year's program.
A report has been prepared which collates the research findings of the LASS students in their ten-week research experience. Although the short ten-week span of the school usually only allows the students to contribute to a project in progress, or to make a start on a new research project, this year several of the projects are expected to lead to journal publications, leading to advances in the field. More importantly, this summer's experiences have allowed these students to participate in a working research environment, which will be of immense help in deciding their future career paths as they complete their undergraduate education in the coming year. This report is currently in publication, and a link to it can be found here
Contact: Dr. James Colgan, jcolgan@lanl.gov
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