Occidental College and the Physics Department, in particular, offer many summer research opportunities to students.
The college supports research over the summer through the Summer Research Program. In principle, any student can apply to this program to research anything they like. In practice, however, most physics student team up with physics professors on their research projects.
The Physics Department has a long and strong tradition of engaging students in it's research. In order to facilitate conversations between faculty and students, the department holds an annual Physics Phestival. This occurs only once a year before proposals are due to the summer research program.
Students interested in doing research in the department over the summer should attend this event. During the Phestival, professors will briefly explain their research and how many students they plan to take on over the summer. It is then up to the student to approach individual professors to see whether a proposal to the summer research program is appropriate. Students should keep an eye out for an announcement from the Physics Department and in their classes.
Some students may want to consider applying for off-campus summer research experiences. Some opportunities appear below, but many more exist. The department has a lot of posters with program information on display throughout the HSC building (most are posted in HSC 122).
Internal Research Opportunities:
- Oxy Galaxy Group with Sabrina Stierwalt
- Rayleigh-Benard Convection with Janet Scheel
- Muon Tomography at Oxy with Daniel Snowden-Ifft
- Opportunities listed at Oxy's Undergraduate Research Center
External Research Opportunities:
- Summer Options at Caltech & JPL: SURF
- Summer Options at LAMAT Institute: Stellar Opportunities for Early Career Scientists
- REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) programs funded by the NSF
- Undergraduate Research Positions at Caltech, Mechanical and Civil Engineering (click here for more information)
- Carnegie Summer Undergraduate Research Program
- JPL Year-Round Internship Program
- Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships at Department of Energy Laboratories