Summer 2012 in the Physics and Astronomy Department

During the Summer of 2012 a limited number of research positions will be available. These positions will be paid the campus wide rate provisionally set at $4200 for ten weeks of work.

HOW TO APPLY

Students should contact the faculty member with whom they wish to work by February 15 and set up an appointment to discuss the research project and their qualifications for the job. Invitations to join a research group will be issued in early March. Student who receive invitations to join a research group must make a commitment before leaving campus for spring break.

OTHER REQUIREMENTS

Students offered a position will be required to do a spring term Special Project with their research advisor. Some Physics & Astronomy professors require more terms of academic research before a student is hired for summer work. These professors identify their summer research student early in the academic year.

2012 Summer Positions

Marty Baylor is looking for a total of 2-4 research assistants for two different research projects: optical signal processing and optofluidic devices. 1-2 students would work on the optical signal processing project. This project involves integrating optics, electronics, and a computer to separate mixed audio signals using an optoelectronic feedback loop. As part of this project, the student(s) would learn about precision optical alignment, computer programming, electronic circuit design, and photonic devices. Another 1-2 students would work on developing optofluidic devices. These devices are made using a holographic photopolymer that can make microfluidic channels and/or optical waveguides when exposed to UV light. Students working on this project will learn about photo-sensitive monomer resins, perform analytical chemistry and optical metrology, and potentially make and design optofluidic devices. Although no experience is necessary, preference for these positions will be given to students who work in my lab during the academic year. Current first-year and sophomore students are encouraged to apply and work in my lab during spring term to get ready for the summer!

Cindy Blaha is looking for two summer research assistants to analyze the evolutionary history of nearby Local Group galaxies M33, M31 and seven dwarf galaxies. The data consists of sets of broadband images as well as images taken through narrow interference filters centered on emission lines of ionized hydrogen, sulfur and oxygen.  These images will be used to perform a "galactic census" to identify the newly born stars (or HII regions), middle-aged stars (as planetary nebulae) and the newly deceased (in the form of supernova remnants).  This will help us piece together the galactic "life history" of these galaxies and compare star-formation rates and chemical abundance variations in different galactic environments.  Data analysis will involve use of the IRAF (Image Reduction and Analysis Facility), IDL (Interactive Data Language) and other image processing software on several operating systems. Summer work will also include acquiring and analyzing images taken with our local telescopes, CCD cameras and spectrograph and conducting open houses at Goodsell Observatory as well as being a student leader in our Young Astronomers Summer Experience (YASE) program for middle school students. Interest in astronomy is a prerequisite for these projects, but previous observing experience is not required.  Students interested in working on this project will be asked to do a special project in the spring to get ready for summer work. Please contact Cindy for further details if you are interested in applying.

Nelson Christensen is hiring at least 2 students for the summer of 2012 who will work with him on the analysis of the data from the LIGO gravitational wave detectors. The work involves programing, so experience there is a preference. The immediate task will be to develop techniques whereby various environmental disturbances in the data can be identified. Students who work with Nelson during the academic year have priority in hiring.

Melissa Eblen-Zayas will be hiring two or three students to work on research projects focused on the growth and characterization of materials which show a variety of unusual magnetic and electronic properties. Among the materials that we research are rare earth intermetallic compounds and Eu-rich EuO. Eu-rich EuO provides a particularly interesting laboratory for studying questions about the nature of colossal magnetoresistance and phase inhomogeneity. Students will gain hands-on experience in low temperature experimental methods, high vacuum techniques, thin film and single crystal growth, and transport and magnetization measurements. In addition to work at Carleton, we will also occasionally travel to the University of Minnesota to use characterization facilities there.

First-years and sophomores are encouraged to apply. Being an experimentalist is, in part, about being creative, patient, detail-oriented, self-motivated, and able to solve real-life, messy (quite literally!) problems, and these characteristics are more important in the lab than the number of physics classes you have taken. Contact Melissa if you are interested in applying or want to learn more.

Arjendu Pattanayak will be hiring 2+? students for summer 2012.  Arjendu works in theoretical and computational dynamics of nonlinear (usually quantum) systems.  Some of his projects connect to possible experimental realizations and others are more abstract.  The current priority projects are about experimental signatures for the quantum-classical transition as you change the size of the system and other system parameters -- how and when does a system stop behaving quantum mechanically and start behaving classically? We are particularly focused on tracking the emergence and disappearance of chaos as we go into the quantum realm. These projects are mostly computational and training to get going quickly is pretty straightforward at the moment. An appreciation for Math and computers is useful.

Bill Titus is looking for current sophomore or junior to work over the summer on a research project that will investigate the time evolution of cluster-cluster aggregation.  This work is a combination of experimental observations, data analysis, and mathematical modeling using Mathematica and/or C.

Joel Weisberg wishes to  hire two students for summer 2012 pulsar research to study general relativity, the interstellar medium, and pulsars’ emission processes: Carleton students, colleagues elsewhere, and Joel are observing pulsars at Green Bank, WV, Arecibo, PR, and Parkes, Australia for a variety of projects. They are studying the properties of pulsars in an effort to understand the underlying emission mechanism; measuring the density, turbulence, and magnetization of the interstellar medium by watching its effects on pulsar signals; and studying Einstein's General Theory of Relativity by carefully observing the orbit and pulseshape of a binary pulsar. 

We would start winter and spring term by reading and discussing articles on these topics, and learning computer programming, so that we can hit the ground running in the summer.  The projects involve the use of unix, fortran, IDL, and C programs to plan the observations and to analyze the data we collect on these objects; and our own minds to think creatively  about the results.  Astrophysics I or II is a suggested prerequisite but we can be flexible; most important is a sincere interest in astrophysics. 

OTHER OPPORTUNITIES AT CARLETON

• The Departments of Physics & Astronomy and Computer Science are proud to offer the Clare Boothe Luce Research Scholars Program, which supports female science majors who are pursuing summer research projects in physics, astronomy, and computer science as well as cross-disciplinary research projects in computational physics, geophysics, biophysics, computational chemistry, and physical chemistry. The deadline for application to the Clare Boothe Luce Research Scholars Program is 8:00AM on January 23, 2012.  More information and the application can be found on the CBL webpage.
• The Carleton Summer Science Fellowship is offered in all the Carleton science departments. The goal of the Summer Science Fellowship is to broaden participation of historically underrepresented groups (including gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, and disabilities) in the sciences.  The deadline for application to the Summer Science Fellowship is January 13, 2012.  More information and the application can be found on the SSF webpage.

• Other science departments at Carleton also hire undergraduate researchers for the summer.  The hiring of 40-50 summer student-faculty research positions in the sciences is carried out at the level of the department or individual faculty member. The college-wide research stipend for students who work ten weeks full time in summer 2011 is provisionally set at $4,200. Visit the CISMI webpage for information on hiring in each department at Carleton.