REU programs bring promising undergrads to CU research labs

Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) intern Olaf Feliciano, left, from the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras, looks at a micromachined silicon wafer near the scanning electron microscope in Bard Hall, Aug. 6, during his work on a research program with Melissa Hines, right, Cornell associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology. Charles Harrington/University Photography

By David Brand

Lewis Kotredes, a junior from Worcester Polytechnic in Massachusetts, and Amanda Deisher, a junior from the University of Montana, had an opportunity this summer available to few undergraduates anywhere in the world: doing research on a major particle accelerator, the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR) and its CLEO III particle detector.

The two young students were participating in a National Science Foundation (NSF) program called Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), which sends promising sophomores and juniors in the sciences, mathematics and engineering to a research university for several weeks during the summer to work with academic leaders in their field.

For a number of years Cornell has been a so-called REU site, attracting fierce competition from undergraduates across the nation to do research in fields as diverse as particle physics, astronomy, nanofabrication, mathematics and materials science. From NSF program funding, each student is awarded a stipend of $3,000 to $4,100, depending on the department, plus an allowance for housing, travel and lab costs. "They are really research partners," said Robert Strichartz, professor of mathematics. "Many REU students become co-authors on research papers. They really do contribute something substantial."

The Floyd R. Newman Laboratory of Nuclear Studies (LNS), the home of CESR and CLEO, which has hosted REU students for the past four years, has tried to make the program a particularly rewarding experience both for women and certain minority groups that are notably under-represented in particle physics research. The lab has collaborated with Wayne State University (WSU) in downtown Detroit, which has a supplemental REU grant from the NSF, in bringing its students to Cornell for the summer.

This year, five WSU students were among the 16 REU undergraduates working in the Newman Lab. "This is a group of students who normally would have no access to a major research university," said Richard Galik, professor of physics, who is codirector of the program with physics professor Gerald Dugan.

WSU is so wedded to the program that it now offers a short course for potential REU students on working at the CLEO detector. (WSU is one of the 21 universities that collaborate in CLEO.) LNS's main concern in picking candidates, said Galik, is a solid background in math and basic physics, then computer skills, plus enthusiasm. Final choices are largely based on letters of recommendation from academic advisers.

In February, Galik and Dugan began matching the chosen students with a Cornell "mentor" -- a researcher who will guide a student through the 10 weeks of intense investigation. This, Galik stresses, is real research, not just make-work. "We realize the research projects must be accessible to a smart undergraduate and that the student must be able to finish the work in 10 weeks," he said. Thus, for example, Brian Clark, a junior at Carnegie Mellon University, spent his REU time working with Peter Lepage, professor and chair of the Cornell physics department, on testing algorithms for Lepage's research into lattice gauge theory. And Christina Lopez of WSU worked with Michael Billing, director of operations at LNS, designing improvements to CESR.

Galik said he was delighted with this year's REU crop. "These are smart, enthusiastic, mature people, capable of spending long periods working independently," he said.

Other labs and departments around campus are finding the same thing. The Cornell Nanofabrication Facility (CNF) has been hosting an REU summer program since 1990 for an average of 12 interns each summer. The program is a 10-week, hands-on exploration of nanofabrication. As in other campus departments, the students are required to report on their progress along the way and, at the end of the course, present and oral and written report.

The CNF REU convocation on Aug. 3 was impressive indeed. Danna Freedman, a Harvard sophomore (mentor: James Engstrom, associate professor of chemical engineering) presented a talk on the fabrication of a galium phosphide semiconductor on a silicon wafer; and Caitlin Devereaux, a junior at Harvey Mudd College (mentor: George Malliaras, assistant professor of materials science and engineering) talked about the fabrication of organic thin film transistors.

Laura Moussa, right, an REU program intern from Binghamton University, works with Antje Baeumner, center, Cornell assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering, and Sylvia Kwakye, a graduate research assistant, at the Cornell Nanofabrication Facility. Richard Killen/University Photography

The Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR) has the largest REU program on campus, accepting students from 87 colleges and universities since 1996. This year, 156 students applied and 36 were accepted. The subjects investigated ranged the breadth of materials science: silicate nanocomposites, magnetic nano-objects, curved electronics and thin nickel films. The CCMR's REU faculty coordinator, Melissa Hines, associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology, has mentored five REU students over the years and finds that the most important benefit of the program is that it gives outstanding undergraduates a chance to experience scientific research firsthand.

"Some people who excel at coursework really don't enjoy the times of uncertainty, frustration and broken equipment that accompany any independent research experience. On the other hand, there are many students who don't really blossom until they have their own project. Then they charge off in new directions, stay up late reading books in the library and jury-rig clever solutions to overcome any experimental hurdles. Graduate school is a long haul, and our program gives students a way to see if research is for them," she said.

This summer, Hines said she mentored an exceptional student, Olaf Feliciano, a junior from the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras. Feliciano is working on a difficult research program trying to understand the properties of a common silicon etchant. "Olaf has claimed the challenging scanning electron microscopy analysis as his part of the experiment," said Hines.

The oldest REU program on campus is hosted by the Department of Astronomy, which has been selecting eight students a year since about 1987. The department also has a budget that allows its REU students to attend outside meetings or to accompany their faculty mentors on observing runs to Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico; Palomar Observatory, California; or the National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank, W.Va.

This summer, Richard Plotkin, an REU student from University of Michigan, accompanied professor of astronomy James Cordes to the 200-inch Hale telescope at Palomar, where he spent his time searching for new bow shocks formed by high-velocity pulsars. And this fall, Joshua Neubert, an undergraduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will accompany his REU mentor, assistant professor of astronomy Jim Bell, to New Orleans for a meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society.

The math department split its 14 REU students this summer into three research groups: analysis on fractals, lattice tilings and coverings and computational discrete geometry. Strichartz, who directed the program and led one of the research groups, found this year's REU students generally excellent. "These are not lab technicians, but experimental scientists," he said.