Freshman learning community on Photons!

Details here. A quick synopsis:

Although light is as old as the universe, it is only a century ago that light was understood as a particle: The Photon. Since then, the photon has been at the heart of our modern life, from the internet to space exploration and one possible future source of renewable energy. This community will explore the past, present and future of the photon and its impact on our lives. This FLC would be of interest to students interested in exploring Electrical Engineering, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, or Physics.

Research Opportunity

A colleague just asked me if I knew any undergrads interested in spending the summer doing an internship at Argonne national lab. The project would involve developing an electrostatic switch using ultrananocrystalline diamond films. If you don't know what that means, it would be working with a lot of really cool vacuum and electronic equipment. :-) Travel money and stipend are likely to be covered.

If you were thinking about a research internship for the summer, and have an interest in the solid state physics or ECE areas, it might be something worth looking in to. Let me know if you'd like to know more, I'll put you in contact with my colleague.

Undergrad research conference @ UA

UA’s Third Annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Conference will be held on April 15 at the Bryant Conference Center. To participate, an undergraduate student must register his or her project by submitting an application form and abstract describing the project by March 8.

An online application, along with more details, is posted at http://www.osp.ua.edu/UndergradResearch.html. A student must have a faculty mentor in order to participate in the conference. Please inform your undergraduate students of the upcoming conference and encourage them to participate. Please let me know if you have questions.

Summer opportunities

Thought I'd make you aware of a few summer research opportunities:

Nebraska Summer research program. UNL has a particularly strong program in magnetic materials and devices.

Boston University summer research program in biophotonics. They have a rather new center for biophotonics, and BU is located in the heart of Boston.

University of Massachusetts/Amherst. Program in cellular engineering.

Northwestern university. Research areas include ceramics, polymers, nanocomposites, photonics, nanoparticles, molecular electronics and biomaterials.